Soft Reboot
by 3-13 Sniper
Summary: A rewrite of that one Gamer fic you saw in this section a while back, completely refurbished and able to hide the fact that it's actually garbage for at least two whole minutes! Now with an actual story, less than half of the self-indulgence, and a main character that you can actually root for! Probably. Hopefully. Oh, and it is still devoid of spelling and grammar issues.
1. Prologue: We're Really Doing This Again?

**Performing creation setup…**

**Tether activated.**

**Processing… complete.**

**Tether successful.**

**Initializing creator...**

* * *

A human being's typical response to waking up and finding themselves in a black void is to do nothing and wait for the dream to end. At least, that's how I'd always seen it.

Certain other kinds of humans would probably try to have a little fun with the situation. Twist around, maybe do a couple of flips, and basically fool around with the feeling of zero gravity.

For me, I'd like to say it was a bit of both. Enjoy the fleeting moment while it lasted. So when I found myself in this exact situation, I did just that.

The act of trying to move was admittedly cumbersome due to the lack of surfaces there were to push off of and build momentum with. It wasn't a complete shut-down, though. It just made it more tedious… and I suppose just that little bit more rewarding when I finally did manage to pull it off.

"Oh yeah," I muttered to myself as I corkscrewed around. "That's how we do it. Spin to win."

All of a sudden, my nonsense was interrupted by an ethereal voice.

**Having fun, there?**

For whatever reason, it evoked the image of a girl in her late teens, or early twenties. Don't ask me why it did that, because god forbid should I actually come to fully understand why my brain does what it does.

I responded without breaking stride. "You bet. Not for long, though. Something tells me the novelty wears off pretty fast."

**I'll take your word for it. I'm gonna have to ask you to stop, though. I doubt you'll be able to take anything seriously like that.**

I attempted to do as she asked, but… "Ah, little help? I think I built up too much momentum. How do I stop?"

**Lemme handle that. One sec…**

All of a sudden, the feeling of weightlessly twirling around disappeared. Whatever had taken hold of me then reoriented me to the position I'd started this whole thing in before taking its leave. "Thanks."

**Don't mention it. Anyway, let's move on. I'm gonna need to ask you a few questions first, though.**

"Alright." I flashed a thumbs-up to nowhere. "Shoot."

**Number one: what's the last thing you remember?**

My right hand came up to rub my chin, while my other supported it. "Uh, let me think…" I racked my brain, trying to recall the last time I'd been conscious. "Ummm…" The awkward silence stretched on as I continually found no success in the endeavor. "Huh, I'm… drawing a blank."

**You don't know?**

"I don't think so?" I scratched the back of my neck in slight embarrassment. "My memory's always been pretty shit, so this isn't anything new for me. Gets really annoying when I walk into a room and forget what I was going to do for the third time in as many minutes, though." My shoulders came up in a shrug. "Sorry?"

**Eh, don't worry about it. I was expecting that answer.**

"Really?"

**Yeah. Now, number two: does anything about you feel wrong?**

My expression scrunched up into a look of confusion. "Wrong? Uh…" I glanced around a few times, then down at my body. I kicked my legs a bit, then flailed my arms. "Actually, now that you mention it, yeah. Well, nothing feels _wrong, _per se, just… I think there might be something off? If that makes sense? I dunno, I can't really put a finger on it."

**Okay, lemme get that down… alright. Last question: what's your name?**

I blinked. "My name? It's, ah…" I stopped. What was my name, again? "Um…" The silence began to become deafening. "That's weird. I know what my name is, right? So why can't I…?" I scratched my head. For whatever reason, none of the memories stored within my brain provided any help on this subject. Which was incredibly suspicious, because I _knew_ I had a name. So why couldn't I remember it?

**You don't know, do you?**

"...no. No, I don't." That wasn't a good thing. Being unable to remember the last thing I'd been doing before coming here was excusable, but forgetting my own name? Not in the slightest. Something was definitely fishy here.

The silence was broken when the voice spoke again.

**Okay. I'm fully aware of how bad this is going to sound, but… that means it worked.**

My face snapped up. "_What?_ What do you mean, 'it worked?'" A bad feeling was creeping up my back. Not remembering what I was doing before coming here? Something about myself feeling off? Forgetting my name outright? That right there was a recipe for disaster. "What exactly is going on here?"

The voice didn't respond for a while. When she did, it made the sinking feeling in my chest even more apparent.

**...do you want me to sugarcoat it, or tell it how it is?**

The question tripped me up a bit. It took me a bit to decide on an answer, which I delivered with a sigh. "Just give it to me straight, doc. I don't really like being kept in the dark."

I heard a disembodied sigh before she delivered the verdict.

**You're being sent off to a world where the majority of habitable land is covered in creatures who do nothing but kill people. **

I thought I'd been prepared, but nope. That opening sentence ran me over like a runaway truck would do to an isekai protagonist. Painfully ironic, considering my situation.

**Humanity still thrives, but has nowhere near the numbers your home has, and most of the population live in fear of death. The people that don't wage a never-ending war of survival against their natural enemies, fruitlessly trying to take back territory. Very few attempts are successful, and even less last very long before they're overrun again. **

If nothing else, the voice did a good job of making things sound hopeless.

**Your own chances of survival are… slightly better than the average human, but it is still very likely that you will die young at any given time.**

Every word I heard was another nail pounded into the coffin I suddenly felt closing around me.

**In short, well… I don't wanna outright say you're completely screwed, but everything you'll have to deal with says that by all accounts, you will be.**

The only sound I could make in response was a defeated whine as my hands came up to cover my face. "I'm gonna fuckin' _diiiiiie_…"

**Of course, this is all assuming you don't do anything to try and change that. Remember, a 1% chance is still **_**a **_**chance, as you should very well know.**

I scoffed. "Yeah. Right. We'll disregard how that's always been against me." I folded my arms and turned my head to the side. "Fuckin' one-percent crits, always killing my characters…" came out as a mutter.

**Actually, y'know what, ignore that. Point is, you're not doomed. You won't be completely helpless against your foes.**

My eyes flicked forward. "Oh, yeah? And why's that?"

**Because you'll have this!**

I was rendered silent when a transparent window expanded into view in the center of my vision. At first, it was blank, but information began typing itself into various areas as soon as the window was done growing.

**[Personal Information]**

**Name: N/A **

**Title: Newbie**

**Class: N/A**

**Level: 1**

**EXP: 0 / 100**

**~Status~**

**HP: 40 / 40**

**VIT: 4**

**STR: 5**

**WIL: 6**

**DEX: 4**

**AGI: 6**

**RES: 3**

**LUK: 5**

**CHR: 3**

**Condition: Healthy**

I blankly stared at the window, glazing over the majority of the information. It took a bit for me to organize my thoughts, and when I did finally manage to file some things away to get myself back in working order, the first thing out of my mouth was "those are some pretty crappy stats. I mean, yeah, it's kind of expected of someone who's level one, but still, ouch."

The voice agreed.

**Yeah, those are… ooh. Compared to the average stat totals of a typical level one human in your new home… they're more than twice as strong as you. Which isn't good for you at all, since that also means that even the average slime-equivalent monster can stomp you with hardly any effort. How about we fix that?**

**[Received 24 stat points!]**

Both my eyebrows shot up. "Wow, uh… thanks. I wasn't really expecting you to be so nice." Usually, the kind of beings who did stuff like this weren't too keen on throwing their experiments any bones. I had to wonder if this was some kind of bait-and-switch tactic she was employing just for the cruel satisfaction of watching me suffer, which in hindsight didn't make _that _much sense since she'd tried her best to be gentle so far. Thankfully, any hints of betrayal were quickly dispelled.

**Oh, trust me, I'd much rather have you earn those points yourself instead of just giving you handouts. But, well, with the way you are now, I can't really see you earning them on your own. Honestly, that would probably be the most depressing catch-22 I've ever seen. Forever unable to get stronger because you're too weak to obtain the means of gaining it.**

A humorless chuckle escaped my throat. "Y'know, I'd make a comment about your lack of faith being disturbing, but given this, I... can't bring myself to argue against you." If the circumstances were different, I might have been elated at getting what amounted to every RPG nerd's dream power, but at the moment, my hopes for the future weren't exactly optimistic. Hell, the fact that the voice kind of implied that my death was all but guaranteed if I didn't have this power only made my outlook worse. What in the world would I be going up against if I needed this game-breaker of an ability just to _survive _against whatever it was?

I found myself going back to staring at the window. "Anyway, er… what exactly do these stats do? I mean, I can make a few educated guesses, but popular media has repeatedly told me that you should never assume when it comes to stuff like this."

**Ah, right! Heh, kinda blanked out for a second there. My bad!**

The ten labels in the "Status" window moved and arranged themselves into the center of my vision, descriptions typing themselves out next to them.

**[HP: 40 / 40 - Your current (left) and maximum (right) hit points. If the number on the left reaches zero at any time in your current state, you will die. It should go without saying that you'll need to do everything in your power to avoid that if you want to stay alive.]**

**[VIT: 4 - Vitality. One point in here equals ten points of max HP. Simply put, how much your body can take before giving out. The ideal stat to increase for conventional tanks.]**

**[STR: 5 - Strength. The primary stat used when calculating the damage dealt by physical attacks. This also determines how much weight you can carry. An essential facet of any damage-dealing front liner's kit.]**

**[WIL: 6 - Willpower. Mainly used when calculating the damage dealt by non-physical attacks. Can also be applied to a variety of other activities. Back liners will focus on this more often than not.]**

**[DEX: 4 - Dexterity. Determines the accuracy of all attacks. Not only does it also improve your fine motor control, but so too does it speed up your brain. This allows you to process stimuli at an advanced rate, essentially giving you the ability to slow down your perception of time. Ranged fighters are all but worthless without it.]**

**[AGI: 6 - Agility. Determines your evasion rate against all attacks. Increases the speed at which your body can move itself, and how fast your nervous system can transmit control signals to your limbs. Generally not a good idea to have much more of this than you do Dexterity, otherwise you might find yourself rendered unable to react to the actions of your own body in time.]**

**[RES: 3 - Resistance. Reduces damage taken from all attacks. Increases how well your body can absorb hostile impact force and the toughness of your skin, bones, and muscle tissue. Focus on this in order to become all-around harder to kill.]**

**[LUK: 5 - Luck. Affects many different things. The full scope of its abilities is better left unsaid. Relying on this should be saved for an absolute last resort.]**

**[CHR: 3 - Charm. Determines your skill at swaying others to your side and how well you can construct an argument. May or may not affect how appealing your appearance is to others. Considered a dump stat by everyone but leaders and politicians.]**

**[Condition: Healthy - Your current condition. Any status effects inflicted on you will be shown here, as well as how much longer they will last for.]**

_'Huh…' _I thought. _'Fragile, but speedy, and no slouch on stopping power. Like a textbook glass cannon. Is that what I am?'_

The low dexterity as compared to my agility was cause for concern, however. Like the description warned, I had no intention of putting myself in a situation where my body acted before my brain. "Hey, um… miss…?"

I heard what sounded like a choked "oh" before the sound of a palm smacking into a face rang out.

**Uh, call me… call me… Gaia! Yeah, just call me Gaia.**

My eyebrow raised up. _'Okay, pseudonym… wonder why she doesn't use her real name?' _Regardless, I went forward. "Gaia, then. How exactly do I assign my points?"

**Point allocation? I'd… love to tell you, but I think you'll be better off choosing a class before you go making choices like that. You don't want to dump everything into stats that the role you choose doesn't make good use of, do you?**

My fingers snapped themselves. "Right, point. What are my options?"

**Gimme a moment to bring up the list…**

The status labels minimized themselves and returned to their previous positions. Once they were back, the 'Class' label started flashing, causing every other label to disappear while it moved to the top of the window. Nine tabs appeared in the empty space, all in a row, each with a name and an accompanying picture example.

**[Classes]**

**[The nine class lines each have their own stat specialties and skills. Please choose which line you would like to become.]**

The first tab's picture was that of a man with padded leather armor, resting an overly wide claymore on his shoulder.

**[The Drifter Line]**

**[Jacks of all trades with a generalized stat spread. Boast a relatively equal distribution of vitality, strength, dexterity, and agility, at the cost of some resistance and willpower. Often associated with freelancers due to their varied skill set, which mixes in a little bit of everything that the other classes offer at a reduced power, trading effectiveness for versatility.]**

The second tab sported a ponytailed woman in long-sleeved robes brandishing what I guessed to be a katana.

**[The Celerian Line]**

**[Honorbound duelists whose Modus Operandi revolves around exploiting enemy openings and weak points. Chiefly focused on dexterity and agility to help them capitalize on opportunities after dodging everything their foes throw at them. However, on its own, their damage output leaves something to be desired, and they can't take hits very well. Their skills are best suited for one-on-one matches, featuring devastating single-target attacks and critical hit boosts.]**

Tab three showcased a heavyset man decked out in full plate armor, with one fist on his chest in a classic medieval salute and the other holding a halberd.

**[The Recruit Line]**

**[Traditional frontline tanks, built to last battle after battle and still keep going. Prioritize resistance and vitality over agility and dexterity, leaving strength and willpower as their middle ground. As you can no doubt guess, their skills mainly deal with defensive boons, and everything else related to staying in the fight.]**

A woman in a worn tunic and ragged shorts hesitantly carrying a simple spear was on tab four.

**[The Villager Line]**

**[Simple folk who just want to get through everything in one piece. A balanced spread of vitality, strength, dexterity, and resistance keeps them safe, with only their dexterity really suffering for it. Survivability is the name of their skillset's game, as well as rewarding clever use of available tools and items.]**

Tab number five was represented by a bulky guy with a headband and leather gloves carrying a large axe while showing off his biceps.

**[The Journeyman Line]**

**[Spirited fighters that can take just as much as they can dish out. Extremely high vitality is offset by near-nonexistent resistance, while large strength reserves and decent dexterity are kept in check by low agility. Their skills encourage them and their allies to press the assault with attack buffs galore.]**

The sixth tab was lorded over by a stereotypical bald male bodybuilder, wearing only a shredded pair of shorts with one hand on the grip of a morningstar smashed into the ground.

**[The Ruffian Line]**

**[Unsavory thugs with the highest damage output per attack of any class. Strength is their everything, with a side focus in resistance and vitality, balanced out by the lowest dexterity around and a lack of agility. Their skillset leans more towards juggernaut-like self sufficiency on the battlefield, turning their innate bloodlust into fuel for their unending rampage.]**

A lean woman stood on the seventh tab, dressed in a breastplate and matching shoulder guards, pointing a bow at something out of sight and drawing back an arrow with a gauntlet-clad hand.

**[The Hunter Line]**

**[Sharpshooters who prefer taking potshots from the safety of the high ground. Prioritizing dexterity does wonders for their aim, and their projectiles pack a respectable punch, though their resistance is understandably below average as a result. They specialize in accuracy skills, and are fans of helping their allies pull off critical hits.]**

The girl on tab eight was flipping up a welding mask with one gloved hand, the other carrying an oversized wrench, paired nicely with her reinforced shirt and overalls.

**[The Engineer Line]**

**[Intellectual brainiacs whose works of art are their pride and joy. Stockier than most and with willpower to spare, but are weighed down in return and aren't the best at dealing damage with direct attacks. Smart usage of offense-oriented items and ally buffs is what their skillset excels in.]**

Finishing things off, tab number nine had a cloaked figure in a lithe landing position, cloth billowing behind them, revealing the dagger clutched in their hand. The hood obscured most of their features, and the rest of their figure was androgynous, giving me a difficult time piecing together whether the subject was female or male.

**[The Sneak Line]**

**[Borderline untouchable rascals with notoriously sticky fingers and a penchant for getting themselves into shady dealings. By far the fastest and most dexterous class, but also the most fragile, having very little in the way of defenses and extremely low health pools, accompanied by an attack power deficiency. Fortunately, they are very, very good at scoring critical blows, providing a deadly, if a bit unreliable alternative to pure strength. They are arguably known best for their wide array of miscellaneous utility and evasive skills.]**

Below each of the tabs was an arrow indicating that they could be expanded. Pressing it revealed the bonuses each of the classes would grant to my base stats, as well as which stats would be increased by how much upon leveling up. They generally matched up with the respective class's description.

Of course, when I actually saw the stat growths upon level up, I almost did a double-take. "All of these additions added up equal… _twenty-seven _points total every single level?! Holy _Christ!_"

Gaia suddenly chimed in.

**Actually, it's thirty-two. You also get five extra stat points every level that you can assign to your leisure, for that extra bit of customization. It's not very exciting if everyone just has the exact same stats as everyone else in their class, right?**

I blanched further and took a breather to gather my thoughts, putting a hand on my forehead. Then she went _further._

**No, wait! My bad, it's really thirty-nine. I forgot to add your luck and charm growths to the total.**

The two stats mentioned gave my brain the opportunity to switch topics and ignore the ridiculousness of the current one. Returning my attention to the tabs, I skimmed the growths again. "Hold up… luck and charm don't show up on any of these level-up bonuses. What's up with that?"

**That's because the luck and charm growths are entirely personalized and uniquely individual, entirely unchanged by whatever class a person may have. Of course, this does result in a bit of, ah… Darwinism, let's call it, due to some people simply outshining others in terms of natural luck or charm. But, again, without variables, the whole thing would become stagnant, and that's not very engaging.**

A single laugh squeezed itself out of my throat. "It always comes back to survival of the fittest… why am I not surprised?" Yet another point in favor of my demise. Spending most of my days in a chair, staring at a screen was coming back to bite me, it seemed.

**Oh, come on, lighten up a little! You're not gonna get anywhere with that attitude!**

I shot the void of nothingness a flat look. "And how exactly does a better attitude help me kill things? I fail to see how thinking happy thoughts will improve my damage output."

**Hey, you don't know that for sure! You could find a skill that buffs your stats based on your motivation, or something like that!**

An eyebrow came up. "Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?"

**For the love of- arrRRRgh… y'know what, just pick a class already.**

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to mouth off to the entity that was most likely responsible for pulling me here in the first place, but she hadn't exactly done a good job of giving me reasons to respect or fear her. Regardless, there was no reason not to do what she asked.

I gave each of the classes another once-over, and began debating with myself. Right off the bat, I picked off Sneak and Celerian. I wasn't much of a fan of depending on the Random Number God to deal any real damage, and I wasn't willing to roll the dice and bet on the off-chance that Critical Hits weren't randomly generated and instead depended on weak point hits.

Ruffian was out too, simply because I wanted to actually hit things instead of just swinging wildly and hoping that one of my attacks connected. The last thing I wanted was to get shafted by some tiny bugger due to crappy accuracy. By that logic, Recruit was also eliminated, since its dexterity also wasn't that great, not to mention it was slow as balls. I wanted to actually have a chance of escaping if I ran into something too hot to handle, thank you very much.

From there, the choice became more difficult. After further deliberation, I removed Engineer, concluding that it was a bit too much of a niche class. Soon after, Journeyman was erased. Under different circumstances, I probably would have greatly appreciated the compensation to my more lacking stats, but now, knowing that my base stats as they were would soon be no more thanks to the free 24 points, I decided against locking myself in.

Three classes remained - Drifter, Villager, and Hunter. All of them were very appealing when taking my current situation into account - Hunter would give me an excuse to hang back away from harm while still dealing damage, Villager would give me access to a great many skills that would increase my chances of survival, and Drifter would ensure that I was prepared for almost any situation.

However, when I considered the possibility of battles in enclosed spaces, Hunter had to sing its swan song. Experience indicated that its performance would likely suffer if things escalated into close-range combat, and I wasn't very comfortable dealing with a disadvantage like that. And then there were two.

Versatility, or staying power? Dexterity, or resistance? Perhaps even swords, or lances? I went back and forth on the last two, constructing pros and cons for each. After a period of deadlock, I tilted my head up. "Hey, Gaia? Could you give me a coin flip, please?"

Unfortunately, or maybe rather fortunately...

**While I appreciate the politeness, do you really think leaving something like this to a game of chance is a good idea?**

Her words took me back to the description of the luck stat, and I found myself agreeing. "Yeah, probably not. Thanks."

Eventually, I felt like I had reached a consensus with myself. Skill flexibility had ended up being the deciding factor that had won the argument. As the old saying went, "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." While the wisdom did fall flat slightly given how Villager was evidently not prone in the least to suffering a case of crippling overspecialization, the point still stood. I tapped the Drifter tab twice, causing it to move front and center while the others faded away.

**[You have selected: Drifter.]**

**Is this acceptable?**

**[Yes | No]**

I pressed the green button, confirming my choice before I could start having second thoughts.

**[Drifter] set as starting class.**

**Class stat bonuses received:**

**+1 VIT**

**+1 STR**

**+1 DEX**

**+1 AGI**

My main character window popped back up, the four increase notifications flying over to the respective labels and merging with them to signify the additions. I smiled in satisfaction, my innate RPGer making me feel like I was finally getting somewhere despite not having any tangible evidence to prove it. "_That's _what I like to see!" My eyes were then drawn to the 'unspent points' indicator. "Now can I put the extra points in?"

**Go right ahead! But lemme give you a quick word of warning before you do. Once you confirm those choices, there's no going back. I really mean that - there is no way for you to re-spec your points whatsoever. So, y'know, think carefully before you hit 'okay.' It could end up saving your skin sometime in the future.**

I nodded along a few times as she talked. '_Yeah, yeah, pretty standard stuff. Heard it a bunch of times before. Now, then…' _I mimed cracking my knuckles and stretching my fingers out before wiggling them. '_Let's make me a build!'_

The occasional click sound would accompany the next period of relative contemplative silence. I would also speak out loud from time to time, reiterating things I decided on.

"Okay, nice and even 100 for hit points… probably a good idea to buff my res… having the option to dodge-tank's always nice… wait, shit, what'll happen if I don't ping my dex? I mean, probably not much since it's only a three point difference, but ehh… think I'll trade a point of agility for one… and one from willpower. Actually, what do I even need that for…? Meh, I'll keep the one there since I might need it later. Uhh, luck and charm… I'll just give 'em two each. Description said it's basically useless if you're not a leader, and I hate taking responsibility…"

At the end of my brainstorming, my stat sheet looked like this.

**VIT: 10 (+5)**

**STR: 9 (+3)**

**WIL: 7 (+1)**

**DEX: 9 (+4)**

**AGI: 9 (+2)**

**RES: 8 (+5)**

**LUK: 7 (+2)**

**CHR: 5 (+2)**

**Unspent points: 0**

Content with the results, I hit the 'apply' button, then 'yes' when it asked me to confirm my choices.

**All right, you're almost done! There's just one last thing you need to take care of.**

It wasn't very hard to guess what it was. After all, there was only one 'N/A' left on my page. "My name, right?"

A new window popped up in front of me as a response.

**[Enter your name.]**

I stared at the blinking cursor long and hard, and a question popped into my head.

_'...do I really want to name myself?'_

Thinking back to what little my memories could offer, one thing I found was that I had no intention of changing my old name - whatever it was. Apparently, my mom had given it to me, and I'd stuck with it for however many years I'd lived in my original world. With that in mind, it just didn't feel like I should be the one giving myself a name. You could argue that I didn't fully trust myself to come up with one, or that I wasn't willing to take on more of a load than I already had.

Either way, the query was given.

"...Gaia?"

**Yeah?**

"Could… do you think you can fill this out?"

**Wait- seriously?!**

Shocked silence followed. Then, in a hesitant tone…

**Are… are you sure? **

I closed my eyes and let out a heavy breath. "...yeah. Yeah, I'm sure."

The silence felt like it was carrying a weight that somehow fell on my back despite the absence of gravity.

**...all right. If that's really what you want…**

The muted clicking of keys filled the void for a brief moment. The bar filled up, and the window changed.

**[You have entered: Zeiss Serven.]**

**Is this name okay?**

**[Yes | No]**

Despite myself, I felt a small smile quirk my lips up. "I like it. Sounds like a good name."

The last thing I heard before I hit 'yes' and subsequently blacked out was this.

**Thank you, Zeiss. For trusting me.**

**You're going to get through this.**

**I promise.**

* * *

**New file created.**

**Save your game?**

**Please wait…**

**Game saved.**

* * *

**A/N: Hoo, boy. Here we go again.**

**So, uh… hi? You may not remember me, but I'm the guy who posted cringe in this corner of the site about a year ago and kept updating it until around July of 2019. It started out trash, but I'd like to say it got better, and I plan to learn from the many, **_**many **_**mistakes that I made last time while penning this rewrite. I'll try to keep the tone consistent, maybe pare down on the crack and self-indulgence, I've revised the system, and hopefully, the plot won't be as janky as it was. The general structure of it will stay the same, though. All that I'll be doing is just making sure that what happens actually makes sense.**

**(I still think it's trash, though. But it's the kind of trash that's actually presentable and can at least hide that it's trash. For a bit.)**

**I bet you veterans can notice the differences already. Zeiss isn't as memey, Gaia actually cares, and the cosmetics of character creation have been cut. The starting location and time of entry bit was removed as well, to deny Zeiss a bunch of his unearned agency. The story is also shooting for a first-person limited point of view from the start, instead of transitioning into one after the prologue arc.**

**Anyway, though, the real action will start next chapter. You'll get to see the basics of how the new combat system will work and a reintroduction of skills.**

**Until then.**


	2. Not Even in a Distant World

**File loaded.**

**Loading world… complete.**

**Loading objects… complete.**

**Loading characters… complete.**

**Loading player… complete.**

**Initializing...**

* * *

'_Ugh… what-?' _"Ah!"

My eyelids snapped shut after opening a tiny crack, nearly suffering what I'd think would be permanent damage from the sun's oppressive glare. My hand was lifted up to block the harmful rays, and my eyes hesitantly slid back open.

'_Lousy god damn stupid ball of fuckin' space gas…' _I made to sit up, various joints in my body protesting as I did so. "Blegh. The hell's with the stiff-… ness…?" I trailed off when I realized I wasn't in my bed. Instead, cold grass with the feeling of underlying damp earth below it was what greeted my lowered arm and pierced through my pants.

The few working cells that survived being knocked out by the revelation had to whack the backup generator of my brain a few times to force a reboot before I could even have a chance of processing everything. Luckily, it didn't take as long as last time to return to functionality.

"...it really wasn't a dream, huh…"

Looking around, I was greeted with a ring of trees. I deduced that I had woken up in a clearing, surrounded by forest on all sides. "...shit."

I wasn't allowed to focus on the feeling for long, though. The center of my vision was suddenly occupied by a line, which expanded into a window.

**[MAIN QUEST ALERT!]**

It shrunk and moved off to the top left, allowing a bigger window to fade in.

**[Brave New World]**

**You've woken up in a clearing, in an unknown forest on an entirely new planet. It would be prudent to get your bearings.**

**Objective(s):**

**-Find signs of civilization.**

**Reward(s):**

**-100 EXP**

**Cannot be refused.**

The majority of the window fizzled out, with only the name of the quest and solitary objective moving to the left edge of my vision. Above it, what I quickly deduced to be a minimap warped in, a purple arrow outlined in red taking center stage surrounded by inky black rimmed by a circle edge. Complementing it was a compass, sliding into the top of my sight. In the lower left, a red bar labeled 'HP' filled up, a numerical representation appearing beside it. Finally, a gray bar rose up into my vision at the bottom center, '0 / 100' appearing next to it. '_That's EXP,' _I concluded.

With my goal set, I began wandering westward with the help of the handy-dandy compass, continuing to push off the inevitable mental breakdown.

For the most part, the journey was… quiet. Almost to an unsettling degree. I picked up on _just _enough distant animal noises to avoid feeling like something was overtly wrong, but I still felt uncomfortable from just how little there were. Why wasn't there anything close by? This forest was already feeling huge, and it had to be lived in by more than just a few critters. So where were they all?

'_There's definitely something off about this whole thing…'_

My thoughts were once again interrupted upon arriving at a small pond. And when I mean small, I mean pretty tiny. I was pretty close to calling it a large puddle, but hesitated when I saw the small aquatic bugs and such swimming around and doing their things.

I decided to take a bit of a rest, and gaze at the body of water for a time. While my mind was on the subject of water, it wandered off, leading to me discover that I hadn't yet felt the tell-tale itching in my throat telling me to drink some fluids and hydrate myself, despite everything pointing to the idea that it should be happening right now. And on the subject of drinks, my stomach hadn't started complaining yet, which raised a huge yellow flag in my head. Come to think of it, I also wasn't feeling tired whatsoever.

'_Okay, that's a huge "hold up" right there. What in-… wait a second…'_

For the third time that day, my thoughts were interrupted by outside stimuli. In this case, it was my eyes catching sight of an object that normally wouldn't have any business being where it was. From my current spot, thanks to the way water interacted with light, it came out looking like a blob of brown, but its color was markedly different from the ground around it and had a very distinct shape.

'_Is that…?' _I leaned over, trying to touch as little of the liquid as I could while reaching out to grab the foreign object. All things considered, I was successful, with only part of my arm getting wet. Grabbing the object, I discovered that it was quite heavy, but managed to pull it out and onto the grass, sending ripples throughout the pond and disturbing the natural order of things for the bugs.

Now that my task was complete, I hefted the thing up to reveal the fruits of my labors, backing away from the water a few steps in the process.

'_Yep, a sword. Had a feeling.'_

**[Weapon "Rusted Short Sword" received.]**

It wasn't a very large piece. If I had to guess, the sharp bit was maybe a little longer than a foot and a half, around the length of my arm, and about as wide too. Like a standard medieval blade, it was double-edged. However, it had definitely seen better days, being pock-marked with rust, yet surprisingly not as much as I would have expected there to be for something that was clearly quite ancient. I figured that maybe being submerged had something to do with it as I swapped it to my other hand to flick my right dry before another window popped up.

**[Skill "Observe" received.]**

**[Rusted Short Sword]**

**Mt: 6**

**Wt: 5**

**Rank: E-**

**An old blade found lying in a pond. Likely not very durable, but still sharp and has some cutting power left in it.**

I elected to save the skill notification for later and instead focus on the weapon stats. Raising my free hand, I experimentally poked them, surprisingly succeeding at getting them to reveal their secrets.

**[Mt: 6 - Might. The weapon's base power. Added to your strength to determine your total base attack damage.]**

**[Wt: 5 - Weight. How heavy the weapon is. If this number is higher than your strength stat, your agility will be lowered by the difference between the weight and your strength.]**

**[Rank: E- - The required weapon rank needed to wield the weapon properly. If you have a lower weapon rank than the requirement, your damage output and accuracy will suffer heavily, and your weapon skills will be weakened.]**

'_Weapon rank, eh? Suppose I'll get a tutorial on that when the time comes.' _Now sufficiently knowledgeable about weapon stats, I turned my attention to the skill.

**[Observe (Active), Level MAX]**

**Displays relevant information about an object or sentient being.**

Unfortunately vague, but I supposed it would have its uses. I mean, given how I'd seen it used in several _other _works of fiction with this same premise, I imagined it would be worth its weight in gold.

I was yet _again _broken out of my thoughts when the outside world decided to intrude on me once more. Normally, I would have been fed up with this happening so many times, but I found myself hard-pressed to be angry when I heard an inhuman growling noise emanating from behind me. I slowly turned around in response, raising the well-used sword to a ready position as I did so.

The baleful red eyes were the first thing I saw. Next was its matte-black, unmistakable canine head. The rest of its body then came into view, colored the same as its head. It appeared to be some unholy fusion of beast and man, like a kind of demonized werewolf. The fact that it only came up to my chest didn't dampen the fear factor at all.

It also looked very familiar.

'_Red eyes, black fur… red eyes, black fur…' _My eyes widened. '_Oh, __**shit.**_'

I fired off an Observe to clear up any doubt, and was met with this.

**[Stray Beowolf Pup]**

**Level: 2**

**HP: 150**

**VIT: 15**

**STR: 13**

**DEX: 12**

**AGI: 14**

**Condition: Healthy**

If I wasn't occupied with bigger things to worry about, I would've wondered why it was missing half of the stat labels that I had.

The Beowolf continued its approach as my mind tried its best to deal with what this new information entailed.

'_Don't freeze don't freeze don't freeze don't freeze DON'T YOU __**DARE **__FUCKING FREEZE, DAMN IT!_'

Strangely enough, I never felt my face twist up into an expression of muted terror. All that it bore was a blank mask of complete neutrality. Besides the furrowed eyebrows, that is.

All of a sudden, when the monster got close enough, it quickly raised one of its paws. I was just fast enough to recognize what it was about to do in order to dive to the side before it leapt forward, completely avoiding injury and causing the thing to splash down into the pond.

I took no notice of the background music that started playing right then. If I had, I would've made a crack about a copyright lawsuit.

**[Track Cue: Duel (Tear Ring Saga)]**

I hit the ground with a grunt, quickly scrambling to return to a standing position and face the Beowolf, gripping my weapon with both hands and angling it forward.

I saw the red-eyed terror slowly rise to its feet, twisting its head to glare at me as its designation, level, and HP bar appeared over it. Then, a blur filter was applied to my vision, causing the world to seemingly come to a stop, and two white swords zoomed in from the top left and right to cross in the middle with a visual flair. A new window expanded into view.

**[COMBAT TUTORIAL]**

It moved upward, allowing instructions to appear.

**[Time to fight!]**

**Moving an enemy into your weapon's range will allow you to perform basic attack combos. They will have no special effects unless stated otherwise by either your equipment or your skills.**

**Enemies will also attack you when you enter their range. Watch carefully for their tells and either dodge to avoid taking damage, or use your weapon to block the attack and drastically reduce the damage you take.**

The tutorial disappeared when I finished reading, and time started back up.

**[ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE]**

My waterlogged foe crouched down again, and a notification appeared above it.

**{Predator Lunge}**

I once again jumped to the side and let it fly past when it hurled itself at me, creating a mini-geyser and likely permanently damaging the pond. Only this time, I landed on my feet and rushed the thing while it was recovering, delivering three simple, newbie-level slashes with the rusty sword.

Each slash caused a white, slightly transparent '**15**' outlined in black to float up off the point of impact, as well as lowering the monster's health bar by exactly 10%.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to react fast enough to its retaliatory attack, and suffered a savage swipe across the chest.

**CRITICAL!**

A red '**10**' was knocked off my own health bar. Failing to deal with the pain opened me up for three more attacks, suffering _another _critical hit in the process, before it leaned back and raised both of its claws, causing another notification to appear.

**{Feral Scissor}**

It struck, the sharp bits of its paws glowing red, leaving a crosshatch pattern of crimson trails in their wake. Thankfully, I was able to power through the burning feeling from the wounds and raised my blade in time to guard against the double swipe, making sparks fly and reducing the damage to a paltry '**1**.' It also knocked me back a fair few steps, however.

This did let me and my opponent catch our breath, though. Or whatever passed for that for the Beowolf, at least. It just looked to be doing a whole lot of salivating. I think? I really couldn't tell if it was drooling or not.

Weirdly enough, the white-hot pain was gone now. But I was drawn in once again by the system.

**[(Sword) weapon rank increased to E.]**

**[Weapon skill "Powerslash" received.]**

The world stopped again as another info window faded in.

**[WEAPON SKILLS]**

**Increasing your weapon rank with a weapon type will grant you weapon skills that can only be used with that specific weapon type. These can be triggered at any time, but are often best used at the end of a standard combo to ensure they land, and will often offer bonuses to encourage this kind of usage.**

**For example: Powerslash, the skill you just received, adds an extra .1 to the strength multiplier it uses when calculating damage dealt if it is used after a standard combo.**

Like all of its kind before it, the window disappeared once I had finished reading. The rank notice also disappeared, but the skill notice instead condensed itself into a glowing little ball. The light faded away to reveal a red marking of a sword being swung, complete with fade trail. A stylized, detailed circle appeared in the bottom right of my vision. The skill indicator traveled down to the circle, then locked itself in at the top-left, giving the entire thing a transparent red filling. The marker flashed twice, then returned to normal.

Thus, time flowed once more.

That was the Beowolf's cue to snarl and charge forward. I quickly sidestepped to the right when it raised its left claw before it struck, once again avoiding damage, and used the opportunity to counter.

Three more slashes impacted the foul beast before I gave the command to use the skill.

**[Powerslash]**

The rusted sword became coated in a bright red glow, fading to a purple gradient at the edges that trailed behind the weapon's path. My body executed a full 360-degree spin on its own before bringing my blade down on the creature that was still suffering from hit-stun, the sheer force behind the attack sending it stumbling backward. A white '**19**' wafted upward, bringing its HP down to 41, and the skill indicator inside the circle on my lower right darkened and turned gray, beginning what I assumed to be a cooldown process.

'_Okay, perfect! Three more hits and he's down!'_

The dark creature also let out a pained howl of anger, clutching at the right side of its face as it retreated. I reasoned that I must've put one of its eyes out with that last assault.

Luckily, I refrained from making a comment about this thing seeming easier than I thought, because it would make what happened next all the more embarrassing.

I advanced on the unbalanced Beowolf, hoping to end this quickly without further injury. That proved to be a mistake, as the time I took to move in allowed it to recover and prepare.

**[Track Cue: Endless Battle (Tear Ring Saga)]**

**{Predator Lunge}**

I registered the notification too late and failed to bring my sword up in time. Consequently, the monster caught me in its leap, carrying me with it through the air and slamming me back-first into the grass. The landing stunned me, leaving me helpless against what it did next. And boy, did it go _all-out_. The rage must have been building up inside it, if that was even possible for this kind of creature, because it started ripping and tearing away at my chest with no signs of stopping until I was done for.

It got off six attacks before I managed to push through the pain and swing my sword at it. But to my horror, it lifted a claw up and _caught _the blade, effectively no-selling the attack as a tiny, pathetic '**1**' hopped out. If I didn't know better, I'd say it let out a single chuckle when it yanked the sword out of my hand, sending it flying away to stab itself into the ground.

With the pointy stick gone, it continued wailing away as I fruitlessly tried to stop it. Six more hits chipped away at my health bar, eventually leaving it with…

**[DANGER! HEALTH CRITICAL!]**

**HP: 1 / 100**

Red crept into the peripheral edges of my vision, and it seemed like everything was becoming less and less saturated, turning the surrounding forest grayer by the second. I was practically at my limit, and the creature on top of me could have ended everything right then and there if it had just elected to perform another standard swipe.

But the wolf wasn't satisfied with just slitting my throat with one paw and being done with it. No, it wanted to make this feel special for all that I'd done to it. Eye for an eye, right? So it leaned back and prepared to finish me off with style, with what I could've sworn to be a cruel smirk appearing on its maw at the thought.

**{Feral Scissor}**

An angry red glare shone from the tips of its claws. A moment later, it swung them down… only for my hands to catch both of them at the wrists, the light trails coming to an abrupt halt.

'_NOPE!' _I threw every single point of strength I had into holding it back, and for a while, I managed to stop its advance. But then it started growling again, and began fully utilizing its own strength, slowly forcing its little daggers closer and closer to my skin.

My thoughts went into overdrive as death inched further by the second. '_Fuck, __**fuck**__, __**FUCK! **__I can't die in the god damn tutorial! How the hell do I win this?! My arms can't hold it back…' _

And there was my answer. '_Wait. My arms can't, but…' _I briefly flicked my eyes towards my lower body before going back to the black terror.

'_...one shot. Do or die.'_

I then tilted my head up, directing my vision again towards my lower body, adding a "what the-" for good measure.

And in a miraculous stroke of luck, the damn thing _fell _for it, looking towards the exact same spot. In the process, it lost a tiny bit of push in our ongoing battle.

That was when I struck. My right knee came up, nailing the fucker right at the spot where his legs extended from his torso. A pale '**9**' signaled the beginning of its end, as I suddenly had a lot less force bearing down on my arms. I capitalized as hard as I could on its moment of weakness, switching angles and pulling its claws down to the ground beside my head. It almost felt like the world slowed down as I crouched my legs up below the abomination, wringing out every last bit of power from my core muscles, and delivered what would likely be best described as an upside-down mule kick directly into its face, letting go of its wrists as I did so.

Regrettably, it wasn't enough to send it flying, but what it did do was get it off me. And that gave me the opportunity to scrabble to my feet and deliver an unbelievably satisfying-sounding straight punch to the jaw, at last knocking it down and sending it tumbling to the floor, as well as reducing its own HP to 4.

I bolted for where my sword had fallen, ripping it out of the ground in a flash and turning back around to charge the nearly-dead bastard. It was still getting up, about halfway through the process of putting its feet back under it.

As you can imagine, I had no intention of simply letting that happen.

With a roar of my own, I sprinted towards the Beowolf, sword at my side held in both hands and pointing right at it. The sound attracted its attention, and its head turned towards me, eyes widening as it realized what was about to happen.

"_HAAAAAAA__**AAAH!**_"

I thrust forward, and the sword pierced the wolf's skull.

**CRITICAL!**

**[Track Cut]**

For a moment, it felt like the only things that existed in the world were me, my enemy, and the blade impaled through its head.

Then a tiny part of the fur on its head flaked off its skin, lazily rising upward and growing smaller and smaller before it shrunk out of existence.

More bits of the creature of darkness slowly began losing cohesion and floating off to disappear on the wind.

I lifted my foot up to its still-intact chest and used it as leverage to tear the old weapon out, kicking the monster off and leaving it to collapse to the ground in a heap. It subsequently started rapidly degrading into so many black specks that blew away in a sudden gust of wind, discorporating completely after another moment.

I stood silently for a few seconds, then breathed out air I didn't know I'd been holding in and fell to my hands and knees, panting heavily from what felt like exhaustion but in reality was probably just the mental aftereffects of adrenaline.

Finally, in congratulations, I became swarmed with notifications, and a fanfare started up out of nowhere.

**[Track Cue: Victory! Cloud (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)]**

**[YOU WON!]**

**Battle Rewards:**

**100 EXP**

**10 Lien**

**Beowolf Fur x1**

**["Stray Beowolf Pup" added to Bestiary.]**

**[(Unarmed) weapon rank increased to E.]**

**[Weapon skill "Heavy Cross" received.]**

The EXP label flew down to the bar at the bottom of my vision, filling it up completely. It flashed once, then turned gray again, causing _more _windows to pop up. The money, on the other hand, dropped into a counter that appeared above the bar, ticking it up to 10 before it faded out.

**[LEVEL UP!]**

**[You are now level 2!]**

**[Skill "Imbue" received.]**

I blankly stared at the storm of windows for a moment, before leaning back and hitting the ground spine-first.

**[Track Cut]**

_'...fuckin' hell, I almost died.'_

I took a look at my HP bar, which was now back to full and sporting '**150 / 150**' next to it.

_'Huh, must've been refilled by the level-up. That could be exploitable… or not.'_

I was silent for a while longer, before the absence of danger allowed my mind to start coming to terms with what I now knew.

"...Remnant," I muttered. "Christ, I'm a fuckin' _dumbass_. How did I not figure that out before?"

A thought called up my status window.

**[Personal Information]**

**Name: Zeiss Serven**

**Title: Newbie**

**Class: Drifter**

**Level: 2**

**~Status~**

**HP: 150 / 150**

**VIT: 15 (+5)**

**STR: 14 (+5)**

**WIL: 11 (+4)**

**DEX: 14 (+5)**

**AGI: 14 (+5)**

**RES: 11 (+3)**

**LUK: 11 (+4)**

**CHR: 8 (+3)**

**Unspent points: 5**

**Condition: Healthy**

My eyes went up to the top right, where the money counter was, complete with currency symbol. "Yup. Base shape of an L, too. Holy _hell_, I'm blinder than a damn bat. And here I was, thinking I was great at spotting interface spoilers."

I went back to staring at the sky, populated by the occasional cloud here and there. A hand came up to rest over my eyes with a groan. "Why did it have to be this one, of all shows…?"

I laid there for a while, contemplating the reality of my situation and cooling down from the rush I'd just gone through.

"Well, thank god it was just a pup." I wiped some nonexistent sweat off my brow. "Would've gotten fuckin' destroyed if it was an adult."

Five seconds later… "I just set myself up for a boss fight, didn't I?" Sighing, I dragged my hand down my face. "Great. Perfect. Wonderful. Thanks, Murphy."

I sat up, finally paying attention to all the notifications. The weapon skill did the same gig as the last one, turning into an orb, this one sporting an icon of a red fist seen from the side, pointed left, with impact decals flying off the knuckles. It dropped down to the circle and sat itself next to the Powerslash icon. Imbue's icon, on the other hand, was instead a pale green heart, and traveled past the other two skills, landing on the exact opposite side of the circle. This ended up splitting it in half, with one side sticking with the offensive skills' signature red, while the new side was instead given a transparent green hue.

The bestiary notification, on the other hand, just decided to close up without any added fanfare. To this, I shrugged. _'Meh. Enemy codex isn't much of a priority right now, anyway. I'll check it later.'_

Eventually, I put my feet under me and stood up. "Where the hell even am I, though?" All I'd encountered so far was just forest, trees, and more forest. Not very iconic, but… "Hm. Emerald Forest, maybe? I hope not. I don't do free climbing." I began trekking once again, making my way through a whole lot of green. "Maybe… Mistral, or something? That'd be even worse."

I ended up covering quite a bit of ground while I was wandering - enough that I began to hear a noise that rang the bells of home in my mind.

'_Hold it…' _I stopped, going silent and focusing on the sound. '_Is that… the ocean?'_

Being raised on the shores of California had ingrained the distinct indicator of waves crashing on the shore into my brain at a young age. Every time I had visited the beach, I'd heard that sound, eventually getting so used to it that I usually started filtering it out as white noise after a few minutes of listening to it. But nonetheless, it was a sound I doubted I'd ever forget.

It became clearer the further I walked. '_Yeah, no doubt about it. That's the salty sea I'm hearing.' _A thought popped into my brain. '_Wait, but that means…' _I picked up the pace, jogging at an accelerated rate towards the source of the noise. Soon enough, I broke through the tree line at last.

I was met with a cliff, stretching off to both the left and the right and curving backwards on both sides, below which was nothing but water. I hopped up to the edge and looked out over the horizon, staring at the endless expanse of dark blue.

I let out a fond sigh after a while. '_Heh. Guess some things never change, do they?'_

Having thoroughly enjoyed the moment, I looked to the right, spotting nothing of interest, and then to the left, where something did catch my attention. A tiny peninsula, barely large enough to be worthy of the title. In the middle of it sat a decently-sized, blocky gray object that was indiscernible at this distance.

My subconscious began connecting the dots while leaving my waking mind to figure out the puzzle on its own. '_That…' _"I've seen that before. Right?" '_Yeah.'_

I half-ran towards the construct, extremely curious as to what would elicit such a reaction. I powered down to a walk when I reached the peninsula, as I began to realize what exactly this particular object was when it became sharper to the eye. I didn't even need to get up close to figure out what it was now.

'_A gravestone. On a peninsula, overlooking the ocean…' _I had definitely seen this before. My brain was poring over the information it had and cross-referencing it with what it knew of the world of Remnant, but it was sadly slow going. In the end, though, it did manage to find an exact match.

Right when I hit the distance that allowed me to decipher the engraving on the stone.

**SUMMER ROSE**

**Thus kindly I scatter**

I stood there dumbfounded for a hot minute, then backed away a step and looked again at the sea. I twisted around, gazing back at the forest as the objective marker at the side of my view shone, the description's font turning bright green and a check-mark appearing next to it, before it slid up into the quest name above it. The name marker then moved front and center while expanding to make sure it held my attention. Another window wiped itself into view over it, before sliding up to sit on top of it.

**[MAIN QUEST COMPLETE!]**

**[Brave New World]**

**Rewards Received:**

**100 EXP**

The experience dropped down to the bar at the bottom of my vision, filling it halfway before my vocal cords started working again.

"...Patch," I muttered, almost in disbelief. "I landed on fucking _Patch._"

I contemplated this new information for a bit, pondering what I could do with it, as well as what it meant for my near future. While I considered my options, I rotated around, and caught sight of the tomb again, turning my thoughts toward it with a pensive frown.

'_Should… should I say anything?'_

I hesitantly approached it, unsure of what exactly I wanted to do. "Uh…" I lifted my hand up at a snail's pace, stopping before it touched the stone. Scanning my surroundings and finding nobody else present, I let it rest on the cold marker.

"Ah…" I wasn't sure where to start, so I just decided to say whatever came to mind first with a sigh. "Look. I won't pretend that I really knew you. Or that I liked you, or… even cared about you." I cringed at the detached tone, but I supposed that was to be expected whenever I was being completely honest. "But… even then, I can't help but say that… I'm sorry this happened to you." My eyes averted themselves from the gray block. "I… can't say whether or not you deserved it. For all I know, maybe you did do something to warrant this." Something approaching a smile appeared on my face. "I have a feeling you didn't, though. You never struck me as being that kinda person."

I gazed up at the horizon, dark blue meeting light blue in a visible curve. A self-deprecating laugh left my throat. "...I know, I know, I suck at this. But… at least let me say this." The rose emblem emblazoned on the stone became the center of my attention. "Your kids... they're gonna do great things. That's one thing I know for sure. So…" I gave it a thumbs-up. "You can go ahead and rest easy. They've got this. They might trip, stumble, or even fall along the way, but… no matter what happens, they'll see it through to the end. They wouldn't be your daughters if they didn't."

The hand on the stone gave it a few pats as a full-on grin stretched my lips. "You hear me? They're gonna be okay." I capped it off with a wink. "I'll make sure of it."

My impromptu speech concluded, I returned my hand to my side. I won't say that any of that cliché beyond-the-grave wind or phantom touch or anything happened, but going out of my way to address and reassure the dearly departed woman when I had no real reason or motive to do so felt… nice, in a sense.

I turned around, facing the forest once again. Scrutinizing the treeline, I caught sight of what almost looked like a pathway. Sure, on the surface it just seemed to be two sets of trees that were farther apart from each other than the rest, but hey, it was something. And that was better than nothing.

The system decided to encourage my choice.

**[MAIN QUEST ALERT!]**

**[Grimm Island]**

**Using the Beowolf and Summer's grave as references, you've concluded that you're on the island of Patch, in the world of Remnant. But you're not out of the woods yet. Before you can truly rest, you'll have to get to a safe zone.**

**Objective(s):**

**-Find and reach a place that the Grimm don't enter.**

**Reward(s):**

**-150 EXP**

**-100 Lien**

**Cannot be refused.**

I puffed out a breath with my eyes closed, then flicked them open. "Alright." My silhouette grew in height slightly as I straightened up. '_I'll have to go back in. Hopefully I'll find someone that can help before one of the bigger ones finds me.' _

The quest window minimized itself when I started forward.

"Here we go."

* * *

**Exit and bookmark progress?**

**Please wait…**

**Bookmark saved.**

* * *

**A/N: What's this? Grimm that are actually a real threat, and not just fodder? Heresy, I know.**

**So, yeah. The combat system, instead of just blatantly being a pure Xenoblade rip, is now more of a mix between it and a standard Square Enix-brand action RPG, e.g. FF7R. Talent arts are gone from the start this time (or are they?), instead of being there at the beginning and forgotten about after Zeiss leaves Patch. Weapon ranks are also now represented by letter grades instead of numerical skill levels. I've also removed most of the magic attacks from Zeiss's early skill gains, though I did keep Imbue on him just for that tiny bit of self-sufficiency healing. Of course, it's pretty crappy at the moment thanks to his low willpower stat, but at least he's not totally SOL on solo mid-battle healing. At least until he starts rolling in potions, anyway.**

**Music cues are still there, because that's something I still like about this story. Finding the perfect track to accompany a scene just satisfies me somethin' fierce. Of course, you don't have to do it if you don't feel like it. On a similar note, I find it somewhat sad that FFnet still hates links with a burning passion.**

**We also get a scene that wasn't in the original - a visit to Summer's grave. I thought it would be a good catalyst for the reveal that he's starting out on Patch. The little speech was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I like how it turned out. I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but I think it gives a neat, small insight as to who Zeiss is as a person. Or, if nothing else, at least you know how he treats dead super-moms with protagonist kids that he's never met now.**

**(Oh, and before I forget: also unlike the original, do not expect updates to come this fast. I haven't even started on the next chapter as of now, and I was already done with this one when I posted the prologue.)**

**Anyway, that looks like everything. The next chapter should focus on a brief overview of the rest of the system's currently-known functions as described by Zeiss, covering everything we've seen so far and a few that have gone unmentioned. But before I go, I'd like to give you all a little something.**

* * *

**Outtake: License to Vibe**

Zeiss charges the Beowolf, gripping his sword in both hands and leveling it at his side towards the enemy. Two words leave his mouth.

"_VIIIIBE __**CHEEECK!**_"

The flat of the blade collides with the side of the monster's head, snapping it in the opposite direction and sending the body tumbling to the floor. Despite themselves, a few members of the camera crew start trying to hold in laughs.

A pained groan emanates from the wolf on the floor as its paw comes up to rub the point of impact. "_Agghhh… _damn it, Zeiss! That fucking hurts!"

The boy in question begins resisting cracking up as well. "Heh, sorry. Couldn't resist. Besides, doesn't getting stabbed through the brain hurt more?"

"Not when I don't psyche myself up for it and also have to deal with a surprise landing." The creature begins to stand up again, still clutching the side of its head. "I could've dislocated my shoulder if I didn't catch myself."

Zeiss's response is a roll of the eyes. "Come on, Jerry. For you, that's just a paper cut. I swear, you're like the Black Knight if the Black Knight was actually what he talked himself up as." A smirk appears on his face. "Either way, you deserved that. Your vibes were simply atrocious."

Jerry continues to grumble. "Oh, shut the hell up already. One of these days, I need to tell you how to separate an artist from their art."

They are interrupted by the sound of a bullhorn. "Alright, alright," the director calls. "Save the banter for your break. One more take, and maybe try to stop yourself from mad-libbing this time, okay, Zeiss?"

The actor shoots him a two-fingered salute as he and his coworker return to their marks. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do."

* * *

**I should have at least one of these per chapter, assuming that the chapter's content allows it and it doesn't cause mood whiplash. Though, in the case of whiplash, I might just save the outtake for when the mood also allows it.**

**Okay, that's actually everything this time. Hopefully, I'll be seeing y'all again soon.**

**Peace out, m'dudes.**


	3. We're Stuck on a Whole Different Planet

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'_Huh… I'm not even sweating yet. Neat.'_

I kept my gaze forward for the most part, occasionally flicking them backwards. The Beowolf Pup in front of me glared back, its lips peeled back in a snarl.

'_Then again, it takes them 75 regular attacks to bring me down to zero. I guess a single level really does make all the difference this early in the game.'_

What the pup behind me was doing, on the other hand, largely remained a mystery, save for how I knew it wasn't trying to attack me yet. Well, until I heard the growl.

**{Predator Lunge}**

These clowns still hadn't learned that the only thing I needed to do to avoid a mid-range leap was jump to the side, which was exactly what I did then. The thing sailed past me, landing before the other one, who…

**{Predator Lunge}**

...proceeded to do the exact same thing. I mean, I understand that basic noob-cave enemies have basic noob-cave A.I. and attack patterns, but… come on. Having only two offensive skills and a string of regular attacks was no excuse for being as predictable as they were.

Another thing they hadn't learned was that skills could be interrupted by certain external stimuli. Such as the liberal application of enemy offensive skills, as I demonstrated then.

**[Powerslash]**

Of course, the timing window in this particular circumstance, that being stopping a lunging skill with a short-range melee skill, wasn't very forgiving. After being informed that this was possible via tutorial notification, I had attempted to try it out for myself, only to whiff the trigger timing twice in a row - one time too early, the other too late. Both occasions had resulted in ravenous punishment, though the effects were diminished by the fact that their standard attacks only did 2 damage per hit.

This would be my third try at skill countering, and to my immense satisfaction, the glowing short sword slammed right into the Beowolf's face in a downward diagonal arc, smashing it into the ground beside me.

**[Daze inflicted.]**

It was left stunned and unable to get up, eliminating its threat potential for the time being. This allowed me to focus on the other wolf, who was now charging me with a skill of its own.

**{Feral Scissor}**

Unfortunately for it, I still had another face card up my sleeve.

**[Heavy Cross]**

I stepped inside the wolf's guard before its shining red claws could tear at my flesh and delivered a hard-hitting punch with my offhand directly into its chest, the skill trigger causing a few extra-flashy particle effects to accompany the blow. If I didn't know better, I'd say the wind was knocked right out of its lungs as it stumbled back, trying to keep its legs under it.

**[Stagger inflicted.]**

I took the offered chance, rushing the creature and shoving my blade through its chest. However, that wasn't quite enough to kill it, only bringing its HP bar down to 24. So I decided to deck it in the schnoz, which actually forced a pained yelp out of it, before I spartan-kicked it off the sword for good measure. It hit the ground back-first, the bar above its head losing its last remnants of red and going completely gray.

I watched it begin to dissolve before its companion attracted my attention again, having ridden itself of the debilitating effects of Stun. It tried to take me by surprise, but the noises that came out of its mouth before it did so alerted me to its plan. I was able to lift my sword up an instant before a claw would have scored a hit on one of my shoulder blades, redirecting it just enough to send it passing harmlessly by. Funnily enough, the damage reduction caused by the system-interpreted 'block' was enough to turn what would have been a '**2**' into an absurdly impotent '**0**.' I had to consciously resist showing a nonplussed smile when the number bounced out of my health bar.

I used the opening left by the deflection to grab its head with my free hand and shove its snout right into a knee strike. And I kid you not, it actually _howled _in pain as it lost its footing and fell down. That was arguably the high point of the tutorial thus far - basically beating a Grimm so hard it all but told me to 'make it stop!'

Sadly for the wolf, I had no intentions of doing so. Conveniently, the Powerslash icon flashed right then, signaling that its cooldown period was over and it was now ready for use again.

This time, I didn't stop the smile from stretching across my expression.

**[Powerslash]**

The activation heralded its end, as the rusted sword was plunged straight through its breast and into the dirt below it. When the information above its head fizzled out of existence, along with its body, a musing crossed my mind.

'_Wow, that… wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess once the stat gap is gone, they really don't have much left to fall back on.'_

Even with a numbers advantage, they weren't able to make full use of it due to their lacking strategy. Having the exact same stats as the Stray Beowolf Pup that I'd drawn first blood on didn't do them any favors, either.

The fanfare started up again as the results screen appeared along with a plethora of notifications for me to sort through.

**[Track Cue: Victory! Cloud (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)]**

**[YOU WON!]**

**Battle Rewards:**

**100 EXP**

**20 Lien**

**Potion x2 **

**["Beowolf Pup" added to Bestiary.]**

**[(Sword) weapon rank increased to E+.] **

**[Weapon skill "Sword Flurry" received.]**

**[(Unarmed) weapon rank increased to E+.]**

**[Weapon skill "Vulcan Combo" received.]**

And if all that wasn't enough, the experience was enough to push me over the edge again.

**[LEVEL UP!]**

**[You are now level 3!]**

**[Skill "Armorcrash" received.]**

"Most rewarding double kill I've ever scored," I muttered before sorting through everything.

**[Track Cut]**

Sword Flurry and Vulcan Combo were definitely multi-hits going by their names and icons. Three swords pointing left, the one in the middle farther along for Sword Flurry, and the exact same pattern but with fists instead for Vulcan Combo. They took their spots next to Powerslash and Heavy Cross in the red area.

Armorcrash's icon was a spike (or ray) going straight through a broken shield. A quick description check told me that it primarily functioned as a guard-breaker, since it left its target helpless if they happened to block it, with the added bonus of damaging and even shattering armored plates under the right circumstances. In short, an invaluable tool against more patient, defense-oriented opponents. Interestingly, its color was orange, and it filled in a new section of what I now knew to be called the "Skill Ring," found after I had experimented with command phrases and discovered the Guide feature.

Unsurprisingly, much of the manual was blank, and while I was never fond of being withheld important information, I also wasn't much of a fan of being frontloaded. Introducing features one-by-one and giving me time to focus on them individually and commit them to memory was, in my opinion, likely the best way to teach me about the ins and outs of the system.

But some of the stuff I'd found in the guide was actually pretty useful since it went over mechanics I'd already seen that the tutorials hadn't covered, like how critical hits had a flat trigger chance of 10% for every attack unless stated otherwise by equipment or skills. I found that to be shockingly high, since from what I remembered, most RPGs and JRPGs had a base crit rate that was at least half that. But, I supposed, truth did always have a penchant for being stranger than fiction.

In any case, I was a little curious as to what exactly the two pups had just dropped as spoils. I was no stranger to healing items, but it felt like the formula for how they worked always changed every three games or so. Sometimes they restored fixed amounts of HP, others had them heal percentages of the receiver's max HP, and sometimes even both. I called up my inventory with a thought, and tapped the little vial icon to inspect it.

**[Potion]**

**Restores either 100 HP or 15% of target's max HP, depending on which is higher. Cooldown period is determined by percentage of max HP restored to target.**

I pumped my fist with a supremely validated "_yessssss_." I'd always hated having restorative items that became useless as the increasing character HP caps stripped them of their utility. Finding out that low-powered items like these could still be a viable resource no matter how high-leveled I became was a great relief.

But with that, my business here was done, and I continued onward.

I focused on the minimap in the upper left corner of my vision after a few more minutes. A quick mental command brought it to the center and enlarged it, giving me a better view of Patch's big picture. The majority of the screen was still covered in the black ink of unexplored territory, leaving the path I'd taken across the island thus far as a stark light gray contrast. The small peninsula I'd stopped at bore the label of "Summer's Grave," as it apparently was an important enough location for the system to mark.

'_Probably means it's using some kind of landmark system..._' I huffed. '_Shame I didn't get any extra experience for discovering it like I did in Xenoblade. Then again, the idea of buffing your biceps by taking up cartography does seem a little ridiculous._' Admittedly, the argument made a lot less sense in hindsight since 'ridiculous' was basically par for the course on this planet, but it would take a bit of time for that to really sink in.

I stared at the map a little more. "Haven't circled around yet," slipped out of my mouth. "That's… good, right? Yeah." It stood to reason that I was more likely to find something useful if I just kept walking in a straight line than wander around, changing directions at random. Not to mention it would probably save me time.

I noticed that compared to my drop-off point, I was much further inland now. "Hmf. I'd say that I hope I didn't land on the exact opposite coast from the island's port or town or whatever human and/or Faunus residence, but that'd just be tempting fate. So instead, I'll saaaaay… fuck whoever decided to start me off there."

My mind continued to wander while I walked. "...the hell am I even gonna do if I make it outta here?" The question was probably better saved for after I was out of the forest, but I was starting to become a little tired of the constant outside silence. Being kept on edge for hours because of the almost-nonexistent ambient animal noises telling me to never drop my guard wasn't really doing my mental state any favors, either. "Mmm... first stop might be the Xiao-Log Cabin, heh. Building bridges with main characters is never a bad idea." Another dot was connected, and a small smile crept across my face at the realization. "And, if I can get their _age_... that'll tell me where I am in the timeline. Two birds with one stone, hell yeah."

Though, that also brought up another concern, and the smile disappeared. "Wait, that's right. For all I know, their first school year at Beacon's already started… or worse, the school's already been sacked." A frown took its place on my mug next. "Man, that'd suck. Locked out of a free who-knows-how-long fraternization period just because whatever asshat's behind my being sent here decided they hate my guts more than Adam Smith."

I flashed a cross between a glance and a glare at the clouds above, then flipped them the bird for good measure. "Piss off, bastard. You already turned my life into a living nightmare, and now you wanna rob me of what little bright spots it might have? First chance I get, I'm trashing your place and shoving this piece of rust up whatever you have that passes for a rear end." I paused, then added "maybe it'll finally push out that rod you've had stuck in there since forever."

Let it be known that I fully expected some form of karma for shit-talking the powers that be. What I didn't know was whether or not it would come immediately, or wait a few hours (or days, or weeks, or months) to cash itself in. In a paradoxical sense, you could say I was just digging my own grave of paranoia deeper the more I tried to distract myself from it.

The sky was beginning to gain a slight orange tint when I finally happened upon another structure. "What… the _hell?_"

It was old, no doubt about that. Pretty run-down looking, too. There were medium-sized holes all over the front, and what little was visible inside generally appeared worse for wear.

'_I know I said I'd prefer a log cabin, but I also expected it to not be… well, in this condition,_' went my brain as I folded my arms. '_Place looks freakin' ancient, and not in a good way._'

All of a sudden, my ears picked up a noise that gave me the distinct impression that something was coming, and it wasn't carrying friendly intentions. A moment later, a pair of blood red eyes appeared in the centermost hole in the structure, staring me down with noticeably greater force than my last three foes.

Two seconds passed, and I was forced to throw my body to the side in order to dodge a lunging swipe from the creature when it flew out of the hole, widening it considerably in the process.

**[Track Cue: For Redemption (Octopath Traveler)]**

The monochrome beast slowly stood up and recovered from the whiffed attack, turning slightly to give me a sideways glare as it emitted low growling noises. This one, if I had to guess, likely had at least a few inches on me.

The sudden sense of deja vu was pushed aside in favor of readying my blade while sizing up my opponent, who was also sporting a more visually distinct and detailed-looking tag above its head, compared to the other three pups I'd killed.

**[Stray Adult Beowolf]**

**Level: 5**

**HP: 600**

**VIT: 30**

**STR: 28**

**DEX: 27**

**AGI: 29**

**Condition: Healthy**

I stopped upon comparing its vitality score to its HP pool. '_The fuck? Last I checked, it was ten HP per point of vitality, not twenty…_' I figured it was probably related to why its little nametag was different, and was proven correct by the next tutorial screen.

**[BOSS BATTLES]**

**Over the course of your story, you will encounter certain foes who stand head and shoulders above the rest of their brethren, be they human, Faunus, Grimm, or otherwise. These opponents are known as Bosses. They are marked with unique name plates, and take much more time and effort to bring down than other enemies, owing to how the status of 'Boss' doubles the effects of their vitality stat.**

**They serve as tests towards your progress, and will challenge you to make the most of your available resources in order to successfully bring them down (or, in specific circumstances, escape them) without dying. As a result, the rewards for emerging victorious over these titans are very much worthwhile.**

Unfortunately, I wasn't given any more time to dwell on anything else that stuck out like a sore thumb on the monster's sheet once the window disappeared.

**[ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE]**

A roar from my opponent signified that the fight was on.

**[Track Cue: Decisive Battle I (Octopath Traveler)]**

The adult wasted no time, starting things off by charging straight at me. A sidestep to the left let me dodge the first swipe, and another to the right got me away from the second. The third and fourth, however, I was forced to block. Then the big guy started whipping out his skills.

**{Feral Scissor}**

Its superior agility forced my hands to stay where they were and hold the block, causing an impromptu light show composed of countless sparks that jumped off the claws' point of impact on the sword. What happened next, however, caught me completely flat-footed.

**{Predator Lunge}**

I was given barely enough time to register that yes, skills could in fact cancel into each other before I attempted to jerk myself away in hopes of avoiding the grab. Thankfully, I did manage to escape being carried off and subsequently pinned, but I wasn't quite fast enough to get out unscathed. It managed to score a clean hit on me with one of its claws as the skill sent it catapulting away, and a red '**17**' flew off my health bar along with it.

I hit the ground hard, scrambling to get a solid foothold before the boss came back. When I did, it was already barreling towards me on all fours for another assault, glaring red eyes locked onto my form.

It then promptly froze along with time as another tutorial appeared.

**[SKILL COMBOS]**

**Much like how regular attack strings can be canceled into skills, skills can also be canceled into other skills. Pulling this off grants you all the bonuses that would come with a normal skill cancel, i.e. Powerslash's damage boost. **

**However, keep in mind that each individual skill can only combo into certain other skills. Trying to cancel into a skill that does not fit that criteria will usually result in either a block, or a miss. You can check which skills can cancel into each other by inspecting them in the skills page.**

**Note that some select skills (such as Heavy Cross) can also be canceled back into regular attack strings, essentially acting as combo extenders - or starters.**

I began working on how to use this information as the wolf raised a hand to strike again. Recalling how the last clash had ended, I decided to shift things up and swung at the appendage. When the attacks connected, negating each others' force and counting as blocks on both sides, I made my move.

**[Heavy Cross]**

My free hand snapped out and buried itself in the thing's chest, hitting with greater force than I anticipated.

**CRITICAL!**

A white, larger-than-normal '**58**' flew off, preceding a string of retaliatory attacks. Three quick slashes, followed by a punch, and then my first test of an actual skill combo.

**[Powerslash]**

An amazing stroke of luck heralded _another _critical hit on my end, giving me an even wider window of opportunity for my next trick than I would've already had.

**[Sword Flurry]**

I mentally sputtered as my arms blurred and delivered four stabs to my enemy, scoring a _third _critical hit on the first strike. '_If I make it out of this alive, I'm never trash-talking RNJesus again!_'

And if that wasn't enough, yet another notification popped out.

**[Bleed inflicted.]**

'_Fucking BULLSHIT! Wasn't the trigger chance for that only 10 percent per hit?! __**Christ!**_'

If the status effect's descriptor wasn't lying, and there was no reason to believe it was, then the big guy would steadily lose a tiny percentage of his max HP over a fairly long period of time. Pretty standard fare for the more "slow and steady" effects of its type. Although, I was very intrigued by the idea that it was actually possible to _stack_ Bleed instances, which both multiplied the damage dealt and reset the effect's timer when applied.

'_Now, __**that…**_ _that sounds very easy to exploit. If I could find a way to reliably inflict lots of Bleed stacks in a short time frame, that could potentially trivialize any big damage sponge encounters I have in the future._'

Before I could think on that further, I was drawn back into the fight and once again forced into a guard. One, two, three, four attacks hit my sword one after the other, giving me no time to breathe as it continued its assault. It was slightly slower on prepping the fifth hit, and I seized the opportunity to move away and avoid the attack. Unfortunately, this move turned out to be a feint, and the real strike dug into my side, leaving me open for severe punishment.

**{Feral Scissor}**

The universe also decided to correct its earlier slip-up concerning my luck and tipped the scales.

**CRITICAL!**

I grimaced inside and out with a brief cry of pain as a large '**40**' left my gauge. '_Okay, I rescind my earlier statement about trash-talking RNJesus. You blew it, asshat!_'

But it didn't end there.

**{Predator Lunge}**

There was no escaping the grab this time.

However, I had also learned from my previous experience. When I hit the ground, I was already preparing my escape plan, legs bunched up and ready to fire. A split-second decision also helped me dish out a 'fuck you' with a little more sticking power.

**[Armorcrash]**

The Grimm had no choice but to take the double-barreled kick right in its chest. Also, unlike my previous usage of that move, it packed enough force to lift the Beowolf clear off the ground for a moment before it crashed to the floor in a heap. I used the time bought by the knockdown to stand up and recover.

**[Imbue]**

My body emitted a translucent, low-powered flash of purple, and a green '**23**' brought my HP bar up to a slightly less dangerous total of 126.

When the monster finally got up, it broadcast its opinion on the current situation in a very loud fashion.

"_**RAAWRRRGH!**_"

A foreboding red aura surrounded it, and a notification popped up.

**{Enraged inflicted.}**

'_Uh-oh. Turns Red, indeed. Am I fucked?_'

A quick info-dump about the status effect told me everything I needed to know to answer the question. '_Flat 30% damage reduction from all attacks, damage dealt increased by half, and access to more combat skills. Yep, I think I might be fucked._'

**{Rabid Rave}**

The boss was all too eager to put its new toys to use and charged me, letting loose with five blazing-fast swipes from glowing claws. I was able to block the first, but the other four slipped right past my guard, striking me directly. This left me vulnerable to a sequence of four slashes, each one shaving off a worrying '**21**' from my health bar.

When it was over, I was left in a pretty crappy state.

**[DANGER! HEALTH CRITICAL!]**

**HP: 18 / 200**

Even worse, the wolf, still very much pissed off, was packing more heat.

**{Feral Scissor}**

Now, this was a problem. If I blocked this attack, it would leave me open for the subsequent lunge that was sure to follow, and with my current health value, that was basically guaranteed to kill me. I could try to dodge, but after witnessing how fast it had been able to snap out the lunge the last time it played this card, I didn't think I would be able to avoid the attack.

Which left me with only one viable option in that split-second.

**[Heavy Cross]**

That being 'stuff the bastard.'

My fist shot forward, impacting against its jaw with a satisfying _crack _an instant before its claws hit my skin.

**[Stagger inflicted.]**

The interruption knocked it off-balance, and you better believe I took the offered beatdown chance with gusto. One, two, three, four, _five _slashes rained down on its hide, followed by a heavy-hitter.

**[Powerslash]**

I made the decision to leave the blade in when I saw how deep it cut into the Beowolf's shoulder. Well, that, and it freed my hands up for my next trick.

**[Vulcan Combo]**

My left hand flashed out five different times, battering the boss's chest, before I twisted around and once again socked it in the face with my right, cracking its natural pale white mask in the process. While I was left reeling, I decided to shoot for some extra style points, and dashed forward. Hopping up, I planted a foot into its torso while simultaneously grabbing my sword, then delivered a somersault kick that would've made Tifa Lockhart flash me a thumbs-up. The momentum tore the blade out, leaving the wolf to smash into the ground on its back.

I took the opportunity to open up my inventory and down a potion, bringing me back from the brink of death as my foe struggled to get up, managing to get back up on all fours by the time the vial was empty. It screamed out another roar, then pounced.

**{Predator Lunge}**

Unfortunately, this would be the last mistake it would ever make.

**[Armorcrash]**

By the time it realized what was going to happen, it was too late. The blade slammed into its splintering bone mask, shattering it completely and sending the fiend to the ground, where it proceeded to slide across the grass until it burned off the rest of its momentum.

**[Track Cut]**

I slowly walked up to it, taking in all the damage I'd done. It was still slowly losing health thanks to the bleed effect, and at this point, any attack dealt by my hand would kill it.

I hefted my sword up, idly noticing that my last hit had destroyed one of its eyes, then paused. '_One-liner, maybe…? Eh, don't see why not._'

I then whipped out my off-hand, catching the wrist of the claw it'd tried to throw at me while I was momentarily distracted and stopping it cold. The action, funnily enough, gave me some inspiration.

"Take the L and just stay down, mutt."

I stabbed it through the other eye.

The Beowolf's final action was to let out a defeated whimper before it began to disintegrate like its brethren before it. Soon enough, there was nothing left in the area save for a larger-than-normal hole in the nearby rundown cabin to suggest that it had ever existed.

I took a few steps back, then breathed out a sigh. '_Another close call. I get the feeling this won't be the last I'll see of them. Not by a long shot._'

**[Track Cue: Victory - OST (Final Fantasy I)]**

'_Oh, special boss knockout theme. Nice._'

**[YOU WON!]**

**Battle Rewards:**

**600 EXP**

**100 Lien**

**Beowolf Fur x2**

**Sport Hunter**

I found my attention drawn by the second item, disregarding the bar at the bottom of my vision filling up all the way, resetting, then filling up again by a sizable amount. I did take a moment to note the notification, though.

**[LEVEL UP!]**

**[You are now level 4!]**

**[Skill "Squad Solidarity" received.]**

'_Huh, sounds like a passive skill. I'll check it later. First…_'

**Sport Hunter**

**A zipper jacket and long pants combo that aims to cover up as much as possible without the use of anything like gloves or a mask. Proper insulation ensures a perfect, comfy temperature no matter the climate or weather.**

I nodded in appreciation. That exact combination had been my go-to option for years now. '_Normally I wouldn't be too happy if the only thing I got for beating a boss was clothes, but… well, it is only the first one, and I like the set. Not to mention that all my hours in Team Fortress 2 have conditioned me to treat cosmetic items like they're a commodity in and of themselves._'

**[Track Cut]**

Yet another tutorial popped up.

**[CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES]**

**Equippable clothing pieces and trinkets can be found all over the world, in both stores and enemy drops. To equip them, navigate to your inventory and check the equipment tab. If possible, you can also select a design and color scheme for each individual item. They will provide no bonuses of any kind unless stated otherwise.**

**Certain clothing options come as sets, which consist of multiple items. Whether or not you want to wear every part or just a select few pieces is entirely up to you. However, rarely, you may find clothing pieces that are part of an incomplete set. Finding the rest of the items and completing the set can sometimes yield unique rewards, so keep your eyes peeled.**

**You can also create your own custom clothing sets and save them to quick-select slots for fast and easy changing if you so desire.**

The reminder of apparel had me finally glancing down at myself with the intent of checking what I had actually been wearing these last hours. Apparently, I had been walking around and fighting in a t-shirt and shorts, with an unremarkable pair of shoes to complete the look. Interestingly, all of them bore a unique design that somehow perfectly integrated the color combination of red and purple. It almost made me want to keep them on.

Almost.

**["Sport Hunter" set equipped.]**

A brief flash of pixels over my body ranging from the neck to the legs signified the swap.

I gave the full-3D model of myself in the menu a once-over, spinning it around and admiring the fit. A small, content "nice" paired with a nod was the verdict I had for it. Once I was done with that, I moved on to picking a pre-set design to fit with the same red and purple color scheme the last outfit had.

**~HALF AN HOUR LATER~**

"_NRAAAAH, FINE!_" I threw my hands up in frustrated rage, then flung my arm down and finally smashed my selection with a fist. "Fuck it, that's the one. No going back. I'm done."

I ignored the wave of pixels that reconfigured my clothing's pigmentation and stormed off, thoroughly fed up with how much time I'd wasted on such a stupid detail. A satisfying outward appearance was all well and good, but dragging my feet for as long as I did simply because I couldn't pick between two cosmetic options of all things was inexcusable.

'_Bloody hell… if I don't get a move on, I won't be able to find a safe spot before the sun goes down. And if survival games have taught me anything, it's that it's never a good idea to go outside at night._'

The sky was completely orange by now, and the big ball of space gas was inching closer to the horizon every second. I probably didn't have more than an hour or two before it sunk below the sea, so it would be in my best interests to get my rear in gear sooner rather than later.

I elected not to search the abandoned cabin, as I was burning daylight and recent events had shown that it was in no way a suitable rest area. The possibility of items to be found was tempting, but in the end, not worth the risk of running down the clock. Besides, I had a map, and I could always return at a later date when the enemies around here didn't pose as much of a threat as they did now.

I wouldn't notice that my map had marked the cabin as "Raven's Favorite Place" until much later.

* * *

Remember when I said I was probably going to get some laser-guided karma for bashing whatever being decided to send me to this place?

Well, here it was.

**[Adult Ursa]**

**Level: 10**

**HP: 1,500 / 1,500**

**VIT: 75**

**STR: 68**

**DEX: 47**

**AGI: 39**

**Condition: Asleep**

_Another_ fucking boss. Six levels above me this time, instead of two, and with stats to match. Exactly three times my vitality, nearly the same way with strength, almost twice my dexterity, and a large lead in agility. In other words: a death sentence for my little level 4 ass.

Thankfully, at the moment, it was catching up on some early Zs. I had no idea Grimm even needed to sleep, but I wasn't going to question it if it meant causing the giant grizzly's status effect to vanish in a puff of logic. Instead, I occupied myself with trying to sneak around it.

Looking back, a better course of action probably would've been to back away until the Ursa was out of sight before attempting to go around it, but I was starting to get a little impatient and paranoid about how much time I had left before the moon rose. So, I went and tried to circle around the knocked out bear as fast as I could without compromising my safety.

But, evidently, I wasn't careful enough.

_**SNAP!**_

I didn't bother freezing, and just flat-out started sprinting as soon as I registered that I'd stepped on a twig.

**[Track Cue: Speedy Comet in Orbit (Super Mario Galaxy)]**

The resulting head start may or may not have saved my life. Within five seconds, I had a very large and very angry Ursa hot on my heels, who was also catching up at a slow, but alarming pace.

Thank god for all the trees. They may not have been able to outright stop the thing, but they certainly did bog it down a fair bit, enough that I was able to stay ahead by a considerable amount. For a while, at least.

I tried my best, but eventually, its higher agility score got it to the point where there was a negligible distance between the two of us. Meaning it could take a swing at me. And that's exactly what it did.

By sheer luck, my foot was caught by some underbrush right when I broke through into a clearing and I dropped to the floor, the large clawed paw nearly giving me a close shave as it cut through the air a fraction of an inch above my head. A second stroke of fortune saved me from being trampled by the oversized black bear, and it skidded to a stop while I frantically tried to get back up.

Once I managed to get my feet under me and rise up to assume a combat stance, it took the opportunity to roar. And this roar was _very _different compared to the ones I'd heard before. Whereas the Beowolves obviously had more wolf-like vocal cords, limiting their battle cries to simply very loud barks or growls, the Ursa had no such inhibitors.

**[Track Cut]**

Therefore, it tried its best to blow out my eardrums with the most reverberating, oppressive noise they'd ever received - and came uncomfortably close to doing so.

"_**GrrROOOOAAAAAAR!**_"

**[Track Cue: An Obstacle in Our Path (Xenoblade Chronicles)]**

It was also powerful enough to kick up a weirdly strong gust, and I had to lift an arm up to shield my eyes from being buffeted like the rest of my clothes. When it was over, I squared myself up in hopes of facing my fate with dignity.

'_Can't run, can't hide… no other option than to hold out as long as I can. And, if it comes to it... go down swinging._'

**[ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE]**

All signs pointed to attacking being a waste of energy. It would kill me in only five clean hits, whereas I needed ten times that to bring it down to zero. Considering its superior agility and dexterity, there was no way I'd be able to land fifty unblocked strikes before it gave me a game over, so it would likely be a better idea to not bother and focus solely on defending until either something bailed me out or I died anyway.

Of course, I wouldn't say no to a free shot if I happened to see a convenient chance to take one, but I doubted I'd get the opportunity.

The Ursa's first strike was heavily telegraphed by virtue of it mainly serving to close the distance. It rushed forward, claws out and intentions clear, and was avoided simply by running to the side.

The second strike was blocked, and sent me back quite a few feet from just how much force was behind it.

'_Okay, good. He can only hit me once before he has to approach again thanks to knockback. I can take advantage of this._'

I had to dash out of the way of another charge before I could ponder that further. Another leap let me clear the anticipated follow-up before I was once again forced to block a hopping swipe that blew me further back as a minuscule '**5**' was chipped off my gauge.

This predictable pattern continued for a while longer than I expected. The Ursa showed no indication of taking a hint, doing nothing but charging me and attacking when it got into range. It was fast, sure, but never able to really catch me sleeping, only ever hitting the flat of my blade. However, the constant blocks still did damage, eventually whittling my health down to 185. Despite that, I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to stall for help. (Even if it was overly optimistic of me to hope that help was on the way.)

'_I could very well last into the night at this rate. I guess even adult Grimm still aren't old enough to really learn how to fight._'

That would be the last time I tempted fate for a while.

It seemed like the Ursa would perform the same action again, so I repeated my strategy and ran from the initial charge, before raising my sword up to the point where I predicted it would attack from next.

Only to be caught completely flat-footed when I saw the paw stop an inch before it hit my sword. An instant later, a gut-crushing hook sent me flying away.

**CRITICAL!**

An audible _crack _rang out as I smashed back-first into a tree. An excruciating shell of pain briefly encased my body, though my shell-shock-induced silence prevented me from making it known to the world. When it passed and I summoned the willpower to open my eyes again, I immediately forced my arms to snap up into a defensive position.

**{Hivewrecker}**

A fur-coated fist surrounded by stereotypical angry red particles drilled into my guard. And in the blink of an eye, straight through.

_**SNAP!**_

**[Track Cut]**

I only had a fraction of a second to realize that my rusted weapon had finally given up the ghost before I knew only pain once more.

**CRITICAL!**

The tree couldn't stop my flight this time. What remained of the wood from my previous impact was obliterated by my ragdolling form as it careened away, skipping off the grass a few times before rolling and sliding to a stop.

When my awareness returned, everything was washed-out and blurry. The red outline along my vision was back, and I could hear my deafening heartbeat thumping away. I felt my right hand death-gripping something, and began trying to force myself to get up.

My HUD was also left victim to my flagging state, as evidenced by how parts of it occasionally fizzled and glitched out, or flickered into TV static. One notification was still crystal clear, however.

**[DANGER! HEALTH CRITICAL!]**

**HP: 5 / 250**

'_Not… again…_' I found myself sluggishly complaining as I pushed my upper body off the ground. '_Can't I go… five hours… without almost dying…?_'

_My subconscious noted that something within me was starting to bubble up._

I was just getting my knees under me when I saw the huge black blob slowly approaching me. '_Oh, hell…_' Absently, I noted that the thing my right hand was holding onto was the hilt half of my sword, now having very little of the actual blade left.

_The something began steaming, its temperature rising higher._

At last, I stood, swaying slightly and facing the monstrosity that was bearing down on me at a glacial pace, a drive beginning to fill my mind.

_It was now full-on boiling, and yet still growing hotter._

'_Can't… give up. Can't die… on day one._' My right hand came up and defiantly pointed the broken instrument at the Ursa. '_Not going down… on the fucking tutorial… __**no matter what.**_'

_The feeling bubbled over, and I unknowingly registered two separate bars filling up._

My vision snapped into focus all of a sudden, and a notice appeared.

**[Aura unlocked. HP refilled.]**

The next thing I knew, a vibrant purple sheen washed over my body, and any semblance of fatigue that remained was cleared away. At the same time, bright red spikes of translucent energy erupted from the ground at my feet, before ebbing outwards and shrinking back into the dirt.

I was given enough time to notice a new, full gauge emitting a muted rainbow of colors next to the Skill Ring before I realized that I was full of _rage_. And that all of it was directed at the overgrown bear standing right in front of me.

'_...huh. So this is what it's like to be inside the mind of the Doom Slayer._'

The instant after, I was in motion.

**[Chain Slash]**

The Ursa did not react in time to stop the first hit.

It was too preoccupied with registering the first hit to avoid the second hit.

The third hit was gouged in as I dodged its first and only counter-swipe, landing on its other arm in the process.

I dug the fourth hit in while leaping off the arm and soaring above the Grimm.

And finally, it could do nothing but roar as I came down and plunged what little remained of my short sword directly into its right eye for the final hit.

I would only realize that I had been screaming my throat raw all the while until after the fact.

Obviously, my would-be killer did not take that very well. While I was blowing off the excess steam from my system, I felt my midsection nearly get crushed by two large paws. About a second later, I was gaining even more air-time, and about to crash into another tree.

Thankfully, by some miracle, I landed feet-first on the trunk and was able to minimize the damage to a degree. Even then, the sheer force caused chips to splinter off and the surface to give slightly, and I had to count myself lucky that I hadn't hit it hard enough to get my feet stuck inside it as I dropped to the grass.

Oh, and I should probably mention that I was still holding on to my broken sword. By which I mean that the Ursa had also ended up tearing it out of its eye, which while better for its overall health in the future, was also likely unimaginably painful.

I say that because it was now covering the destroyed socket with both paws and yet again trying to blow out my eardrums with another earth-shaking roar. Whether it came closer to actually doing so as compared to last time, I can't say. All of the noises the Grimm made to indicate their fury were already starting to bleed together. (Which certainly said something, since I hadn't even been on Remnant for a full 24 hours yet.)

Although, it did also force my eyes shut since I hadn't yet gotten that annoying reflex under control. Granted, I probably never would, but there was nothing stopping me from blaming unrelated bodily functions for what happened next.

When my brain finally determined that my lids were free to peel back, I was met with the sight of a paw on a trajectory of impact into my side. Of which I was nowhere near fast enough to stop.

A fifth of my health bar was cleaved off, and a sizable '**51**' went along with it.

'_I'm starting to think that Monty Python's Flying Circus would've been a better option for flying lessons,_' went my thoughts as I sped towards another waiting tree. '_Right now, I just feel like I'm being tossed around._'

My third crash of the day arrived, and I was starting to become concerned. A quip left my mouth once the pain wore off. "Sheesh. Something tells me that naturalists wouldn't be very big fans of all this forest abuse."

The Ursa, being in as much agony as it was, couldn't really be bothered to give a fuck about deforestation and reverted back to its old strategy of 'charge and attack until it dies.' Seeing this, I also reverted to the counter-strategy I'd employed at the beginning of the fight, ran from the projected path, and lifted my hands up in a guarding position to brace for the follow-up.

Only for my brain to remind me of how my sword was now half the weapon it used to be, and dope-slap me for forgetting that crucial fact.

"...well, shit."

And goodbye went another '**51**'.

'_DAMN YOUUU, MUSCLE MEMORYYYYYYY-!_' Crash number four cut off my mental villain curse and replaced it with a choked noise as the remaining air molecules left in my lungs decided to take a one-way trip back to the outside world. This led to my get-up speed taking a hit, and left me scrambling to stand again in order to prepare for the next hit.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite fast enough.

**{Hivewrecker}**

'_Oh, __**piss o**__-_'

**{Concussed inflicted.}**

The silver lining on this one was that I ended up not hitting any trees. Albeit, on second thought, maybe having something to prematurely stop me would be better, especially since I wouldn't have to deal with uncomfortably bouncing off the ground several times before bleeding off enough momentum to stop on my own. Alas, there was nothing I could do about it now.

A more immediate concern was how the purple sheen from earlier flickered back into existence around my body before it broke apart (mirroring how my HP bar, having been reduced to zero, cracked and blew apart itself), and the notification that appeared right after.

**{Shatter inflicted.}**

Said notification was apparently enough to warrant its own tutorial.

**[CRISIS MODE]**

**Crisis Mode takes effect whenever your HP drops to zero at any point after unlocking your Aura. Instead of dying, your Aura will break, leaving your body vulnerable to potentially fatal injury. While your stats will remain unaffected, continuing to fight while in this state is not recommended, as the risk of true death is likely very high if you have already been pushed to this point.**

**Crisis Mode will remain in effect until the Shatter status effect wears off.**

When the window disappeared, the familiar grayscale filter, red edges, and blur came right back, along with the audible heartbeat and failing HUD. Only this time, every time a beat thudded in my ears, the red turned black and briefly covered more of my vision before retreating back and regaining its color. I figured it probably had something to do with the whole 'Concussed' thing I was hit with earlier.

'_This isn't… even funny anymore…_' The sluggish thoughts also made a return. '_It's just… sad now._' Even unlocking my very own Aura, and the quote-unquote 'hard way' at that, still had me coming up short against the sheer difference in level and stats.

I'd been knocked pretty far away, but the Ursa was still big enough to be seen as it slowly lumbered towards me, repeating history again. Not that I could make out any details due to my impaired vision.

'_Well…_' I doubted that I had anything left up my sleeve at this point, known or unknown. It was honestly pretty pathetic how I hadn't even managed to last a single day, even after everything I'd managed to scrape past, but I supposed my beginner's luck had to run out at some point. '_Let it never be said… that I didn't try…_'

All I could do now was get my feet under me, stand up straight, and face the end like a man. My tired right arm came up for what was likely the last time, pointing the last of my resolve at the unstoppable monster.

"C'mon… you Rotbart rip-off. Get your ass over here and… finish it already."

And yet, it seemed that fate or some other sick bastard didn't want my story to end just yet.

"-ey!"

At long last, I heard a human's voice that wasn't my own. Turning my head to its source, all I could make out was another featureless blob. "Oh… look at that. An audience." I forced out a laugh. "At least… someone'll know I died at all."

It came closer, arriving next to me in no time. "Nobody's dying today on my watch! C'mon!" A hand wrapped itself around my left arm, and I was yanked in the opposite direction of the Ursa.

Damaged as I was, it was a challenge just to not fall over. This was compounded by the fact that whoever had found me was a great deal faster than I was. "Hey… hey! Do you… want me to trip?!"

We didn't stop. "Well, we can't let it catch us, can we!?"

Eventually, unable to keep up the pace, I ended up stumbling and eating dirt. My would-be rescuer wasn't too pleased about that. "Ohh, come on! Get up!"

"Too… slow," I shook my head. "It'll catch up… if I hold you back."

"I'm not leaving you behind!" For some reason, my brain decided to take this moment to inform me that the voice was somewhere on the higher end of the pitch scale, and most likely feminine.

The darkness was getting closer to completely covering my vision. "Then… think of something… before we both die."

A few moments passed, and I chanced a look behind us. The Ursa was making pretty good time, closing the distance at a rapid pace with what I could only assume were big, long strides. Or maybe not, because regular bear legs were kinda short… but did Ursai follow that convention?

Suddenly, I was broken out of my musings when two skinny arms wrapped themselves around my body and threw me up to sling me over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"...huh." I slowly blinked. "Good idea."

And we were off. The speed difference was now extremely noticeable, as the pursuing Grimm's shape started to get smaller.

'_Must have… one hell of an agility stat…_'

Alas, it was only a matter of time until the Concussed effect caught up with me. The darkness crept in and didn't stop until my vision was completely covered, and my consciousness slipped away. My only comfort was that by the time it did, we were all but guaranteed to have escaped the threat.

'_Hope… she sticks around…_' was my last thought before blacking out. '_Would suck… if I never… got to thank… her…_'

* * *

**Save your game?**

**Please wait…**

**Game saved.**

* * *

**A/N: Near-Death Count: 4. Three of which were in this chapter alone. On day one. Talk about a gauntlet, huh?**

**...I should probably give the poor guy a break.**

**Sorry this took so long, by the way. School, quarantine, yadda-yadda-yadda. Moving on.**

**New content! How 'bout that adult wolf, eh? Of course, compared to the first battle of the fic, he didn't quite manage to get Zeiss on the ropes as much, but he did have a few surprises in store. Inspiration for that was taken from the images shown during Yang's backstory dump, since if Grimm happened to take up shelter there at that point, then I doubt anyone was actually keeping that place up to code.**

**Readers of the original story… probably won't remember the Ursa boss since he was very forgettable due to how I wrote the early Patch chapters. So, because this is a rewrite, I've decided to give him a little upgrade. Rest assured, this will not be the last we'll see of him.**

**Three guesses as to who pulled Zeiss' ass out of the fire. I don't think I made it too terribly obvious, but most people are sharper than the media gives them credit for. I'm sure most of you will come close, if not outright call it.**

**No omake this time because I just want to get this out there and I don't have any ideas for one.**

**Bye.**


	4. Who Am I? Am I Not Unique?

**Update available!**

**Installing… complete.**

**File loaded.**

**Initializing…**

* * *

"_Are you… robbing me?"_

_Huh?_

"_I just wanna be a normal girl, with normal knees."_

_Head's pounding…_

"_Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking!"_

_Ugh, voices…_

"_Mmm, nope!"_

_Whaddaya mean, 'nope?'_

"_Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be DELICIOUS!"_

_Man, cut it out with the yelling. You're making it worse._

"_We're stopping this train!"_

_What the hell kinda migraine __**is **__this?_

"_Oh, it's so good to see you! Didja miss me? Didja miss me?!"_

_Black…? No, red? Wait a second, green? The fuck?_

"_GET AWAY FROM HER!"_

_And… copper? Bronze? Hold on…_

"_**PYRRHAAAAAAAA!**_"

* * *

When I regained awareness, I was greeted with a soft, comfortable feeling of warmth.

"Nnhuuugh…" '_Mmm… feels nice. Like a blanket._'

Sadly, it didn't really help with how my head felt a little borked. But whatever it was, I had no intentions of leaving it just yet, merely adjusting myself slightly to a better position.

My mind registered that my ears were picking up something that sounded an awful lot like a… news broadcast?

"...have confirmed that the man responsible for the crime was notorious thief Roman Torchwick, likely in an attempt to…"

Having just woken up, I was still suffering from classic morning sloth, and was unable to make a connection to that name. I shifted again, having gotten bored of my old position.

**Hey.**

The sudden crystal-clear voice that almost seemed to emanate from behind my eardrums jump-started my focus slightly. "Mmnnwhuh?"

**C'mon, sleepyhead. Up and at 'em.**

My eyes blearily cracked open, lids slowly peeling back before blinking a couple times to try and clear away the blurriness. I tried to move a hand up to rub them, and was briefly impeded by what I guessed to be the blanket that was the source of my comfort. It didn't take much to unwrap myself, thankfully, and my hands got their job done, removing any blockages from my sight.

A black window came into view.

**[SYSTEM UPDATE!]**

'_Eh?_'

**[Ver. 1.0.1 Changelog:]**

**-Added HUD pop-up notifications for discovering landmarks**

**-Fixed an issue that would prevent Gaia chat functionality upon bootup**

**-Added more customization options for the Skill Ring**

**-Certain Guide descriptions have been updated**

**-Some skills have been rebalanced**

**-Minor bug fixes**

**-Updated localization files**

I parsed through the information with an empty stare and glazed pupils, still not up to one hundred percent yet. It was starting to occur to me that my head was suffering from a routine, dull throbbing, and was also feeling a bit fuzzy - in short, like I said earlier: a little borked. Likely from what had happened before I'd blacked out.

I slowly sat up, absently registering that I was lying on a couch before one of my brain cells gave the main power generator some good old-fashioned percussive maintenance with a monkey wrench, and everything clicked. '_Oh… oh, shit, that's right._'

Conveniently, someone else also happened to be in the room at that moment. "Well, hello there, sleeping beauty. Finally get that true love's kiss of yours?"

My head twisted in the direction of the source, and I was met with a mop of short blond hair and faded lilac eyes, coupled with a strong jaw covered in stubble and a well-built body.

Oh, and who could miss the tag floating over him?

**[Taiyang Xiao-Long]**

**Legendary Draco-Dad**

**Reaver**

**Lv. ?**

I stared about a full second longer than most people would consider socially acceptable before it hit me that I should probably respond. I blinked, eyes darting around to look at any spot other than him. "Uh… yeah? Eh- no? I don't… think so?"

Well, now I knew how much those extra two points in charm were really worth. '_Smooth, man._'

The guy chuckled. "Nice to see that you can stick your foot in your mouth, at least. You gave us quite the shock when my younger daughter barged inside last night, treating you like a burlap sack." He shook his head, the smile dropping off his face. "Nearly gave me a heart attack on top of that when she said she'd found you going up against an Ursa with nothing but a broken sword and no aura left to save yourself."

I felt the red of shame creeping into my cheeks and averted my gaze. "Yeah… not my best move. Kiting him probably would've been a better idea, but I guess I've got a saboteur loosening screws somewhere in here." I lifted my knuckles up and rapped on my noggin a few times, mimicking a hollow noise as I did so. "Oh, wait, nope, it's just empty. Suppose that explains a lot."

An empathetic expression and a sage nod was his response. "A fellow brainless compatriot, I see. My heart goes out to you in that case. Good plans never were our forte."

I gave a helpless shrug. "Well, usually I can come up with something serviceable on the fly. Or I think I can, at least. That was the, ah, fourth time I'd ever needed to use improvisational battle tactics?" My hand came up to scratch the back of my neck. "Kinda obvious that the first time I had to use 'em was a few hours earlier, huh?"

"...hold on a second," he started after a period of giving me this look, "does that… are you implying that you went up against an Ursa on your first day of having to fight, _period?_"

Now that he said it out loud, it did seem pretty idiotic, but… "I didn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter." I grunted. "The sun was about to set, the thing was snoring right in the middle of my path, and I had to find a safe zone before the real nasty creepies started crawling out. Unfortunately, my stealth slinking needs work, and the sound of a foot snapping a twig is very effective at waking things up."

The guy folded his arms. "What were you even doing out there in the first place?"

"The only honest answer I can give you is that I have no clue whatsoever." I shook my head. "I woke up yesterday in a forest I didn't recognize with no idea what the hell was going on. I found an old sword in a pond, and decided to start walking in one direction in hopes of eventually finding civilization. Going by everything that happened, uh…" an awkward, somewhat forced smile appeared on my face, paired with a sheepish shrug. "I, _guess _it worked? I mean, I survived either way, and that's a win in my book."

He snorted. "I'd say your definition of 'win' is a little skewed, but whatever helps you sleep at night, pal." He took a few steps forward and raised his hand. "Taiyang Xiao-Long. People I like call me Tai."

"Zeiss Serven." Actually saying the name myself didn't make it feel any less weirdly foreign. I mused it would probably grow on me at some point as I grasped the offered appendage. "Am I one of those people?"

"Mmm… not yet." He gave me an appraising look. "You'll have to prove this isn't just some elaborate ploy to steal the hearts of my daughters before you can get on my good list."

I had to chuckle at that as I let go. "Do these hands look like they were made for thievery?" I didn't even have a knife or a gun or mask, either. Or a Persona. Would be real neat, though.

"Doesn't matter," he rebuffed. "A guy with hands as big as pineapples can still pick a lock if he's careful enough."

"And the face?" I deadpanned, pointing to my head. "C'mon, man. Do you see this atrocity of a mug? Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have a chance."

Taiyang had an answer for that, too. "If a guy like me can score, then you sure as hell can, too."

I had to hold in a fusion of a laugh and a frustrated groan. "Would it help to know that I avoid committing to any serious relationships like the plague?"

"Nnnnope." And there was the family's signature P pop. "Not one bit."

A palm came up to my face as the groan finally won out and left me. "You're not letting me win this argument no matter what I say, aren't you?"

"Now you're getting it," he grinned.

"Hey, dad?" A new voice called from outside the room, drawing Taiyang's attention. "I think we're out of butter… and chocolate chips."

He glanced off in the direction it was coming from to respond. "Make sure to write those down on the list for tomorrow's shopping run. Is your sister up yet?"

"Doubt it. She was up pretty late last night." A light chuckle wafted in. "Gotta say, I'm seriously impressed with how she managed to bring a guy home before I did! I thought it'd take her years to break out of that shell of hers!"

The big guy next to me laughed. "I guess our little Rose is finally blooming, eh?" He then let out a wistful sigh. "I still remember the days when she'd slip away from the park to go drool all over the windows of the old weapon shop… or the smithy."

"You know she still does that, right? It's just easier 'cause she doesn't have to sneak off anymore." A clattering noise sounded out. "Ah, shi- uhh, crap. Freakin' tiny spoons—"

Taiyang started moving. "Need help in there?"

"Nah, I got it," came the voice again, causing him to stop. "_Fork_ this silverware, am I right?"

The man raised his fist up slightly and shook it. "Oooh-hoo-hoo, you are _very _lucky you managed to make me laugh with that one, otherwise the swear jar would've gotten a bit fatter! You know it's not very _knife _to say that, Yang!"

I had to cover up my mouth with a hand to muffle some unholy combination of a snicker and a groan. '_God damn it, why am I laughing at these? They're __**shit!**_' Good news was, it meant that my sense of humor was still intact, however terrible it may have been.

I also ended up bending over, causing me to miss the moment when the source of the voice entered the room with a bowl of cereal. "Oh, hey, you're awake! About time."

Exactly as I'd expected, I looked back up at a glorious mane of vibrant yellow, a pair of lighthearted full lilac eyes, and a blazing grin.

**[Yang Xiao-Long]**

**Sunny-D**

**Journeyman**

**Lv. 17**

I simply lifted a hand up in greetings. "Hi. Sorry for crashing in unannounced."

She shrugged as much as she could with her hands full. "Meh, it's fine. You were out cold, and we didn't really wanna leave you hanging." She then started making her way over to a different couch. "If you've gotta apologize to someone, then do it to Ruby. She's the one who dragged you all the way back here, after all." Carefully sitting down without spilling anything, she dug in. "Not right now, though. Wait 'till she wakes up."

I'd gotten tired of standing around, so I went to sit back down. "How much time until then?"

She hummed through a mouthful of food, then swallowed to speak. "Thirty minutes to an hour, probably. Not that long."

"Huh. Alright, then." I propped my head up on my leg with one arm, rubbing my chin with the attached hand.

That little exchange had all but confirmed it. '_Of all the people to pull my ass out of the fire…_' It was either a smaller world than I thought, or something was obscuring my luck stat's actual value. '_It had to be Ruby fucking Rose herself. And not only that, she had to take me back to her place._'

Taiyang broke me out of my thoughts after focusing on what Yang was holding. "Hey, now that I think about it… when was the last time you ate?"

My eyes widened as I considered the question. "Uh… huh. I…" The topic of food brought back both memories of yesterday, and older bits of my last life. Particularly a few clear images of Burgundy Tri-Tip. Real good stuff, that was. And a shame that they probably didn't serve anything like it around Patch… or likely even the greater world of Remnant. But that was neither here nor there.

Thinking on it, I couldn't recall feeling hungry at all when I'd been trekking through the forest. Adding on to that, I also hadn't felt the least bit thirsty, or the need to answer nature's call.

'_Seems like I did get a variant of the coveted Gamer's Body skill after all…_' I thought, before another detail popped out. '_Actually, I don't think I remember seeing my clothes or skin get ripped or torn at all. Which is weird, because I took a lot of hits to covered areas._' The skin was understandable since the skill was known for stopping the user's body from sustaining any visible wounds and instead deducting HP for suffering attacks, but the clothes, not so much. '_Does that mean it also prevents clothing from taking structural damage? If so, then… well, I think it'd be the first system I've seen that goes out of its way to preserve fashion._'

Then again, now that I had what was basically a full-body force field, that function was kinda rendered moot. Even still, though, it was neat.

"You in there, buddy?" I was once again snapped out of my musings by the man of the house.

I realized I hadn't answered his question. "O-oh, right, sorry. Uh… hm." I obviously couldn't tell him the whole truth since I'd rather avoid giving away anything significant at such an early point in our relationship. But outright lying also wasn't a good choice.

So I just decided to be vague. "I… don't remember eating yesterday. I dunno if it was because I was too focused on getting out of the forest, or because I didn't have anything to eat on me, or something else. But I don't think I ate yesterday."

"Say no more." Taiyang started moving towards where Yang had just emerged from, then stopped halfway, looking back to me. "You want anything in particular, or should I pick for you?"

I replied with the answer I usually gave in these kinds of situations while standing up. "If it's okay with you, I'd rather do that myself."

"Well, I say it's not okay with me," he rebuffed. "If what you've told me is true, then what you really need right now is some R&R. Besides, I'd be a poor excuse of a host if I wasn't the one doing the serving." He smiled. "Now, why don't you sit back down and tell me what you'd like for breakfast?"

There was no continuing the argument after a total shut-down like that, so I chose to do as he asked and returned to my place on the couch with a defeated sigh. "You have any waffles?"

A sorrowful wince appeared on his face. "We ran out yesterday."

My feeble sense of courtesy browbeaten into me by years of experience in Boy Scouts had me holding back a noise of discontent at the news. Instead, I settled with rubbing my eyes with one hand. "Just give me some toast then, please."

"Roger that." And away he went.

I slouched back into my seat, staring up at the ceiling and different aspects of my HUD with half-lidded pupils.

Honestly, Taiyang was right. I definitely needed to take some time to come to terms with everything now that I had the time to take a step back and let it all sink in. I was in the ideal spot to do it, too - inside four rustic walls, sitting on a great cushion and under the protection of a family full of badasses.

However, what I needed and what I wanted didn't always agree with each other. Prime examples of this were my stances on school (a necessary evil), exercise (it might as well be a requirement now), and kale (which can go straight to salad hell). Besides, fully accepting their new circumstances and the fact that they'd have to figure out their role in this new setting under their own power wasn't something most self-inserts didn't achieve until… anywhere between about halfway through the first story arc to around the point of its completion.

Of course, that was a load of bullshit, and I knew that deep down, but finding ways to justify poor decisions had been a hobby of mine since third grade, and I wasn't about to stop now.

In any case, what I wanted at that moment was to find a way to put off the inevitable existential (I think that's the correct term) crisis and subsequent breakdown as much as possible. I found the perfect excuse to do that when my gaze happened to drift back over Yang, or more specifically, her bowl of cereal.

"What brand you got there?"

Her irises briefly flicked down to her food before going back up. "Uh… I don't remember the exact name, but they're just discount Fortune Idols. Y'know, 'hearts, stars and horseshoes,' the one with the marshmallows?"

'_Lucky Charms then, obviously._' I nodded. "Yeah, they're pretty good. 'Course, I've only ever had offshoots too, but does that really matter if it tastes the same as the brand stuff?"

She nodded back. "Yup, exactly." Another spoonful was shoved into her mouth, seemingly capping off the end of that conversation.

'_Well, that failed._' Served me right for thinking I could get any use whatsoever out of charm. '_Uh, fallback, fallback… wait._'

My vision focused on a specific point in my HUD, drawn not to anything visible, but the noticeable lack of something.

'_That one bar… it's gone._'

If my short-term memory wasn't completely faulty, it had appeared right after I'd unlocked my Aura… and right before I'd unleashed that five-slash combo. Exactly how much damage that attack had done was unknown to me as I'd been too busy seeing red (and getting my ass kicked) to pay attention to the numbers flying out of the bear's health bar, but going by how it had reacted, it was definitely a real heavy hitter.

Come to think of it, hadn't the gauge also been shining a rainbow of colors when it was full?

'_...did I seriously pull a Limit Break out of my ass?_'

I froze there for a moment, before realizing that I should probably check the guide to see if it had anything to say about this. Popping the menu open with a mental call, I scrolled down to the 'Combat' section and immediately singled out one particular tab.

**[THE SUPER GAUGE]**

**Unlocking your Aura has granted you access to the Super gauge.**

**Upon entrance into a battle, your Super gauge will appear next to the Skill Ring. The gauge can be filled up by performing various actions, though none will do so as fast as taking damage.**

**Once the gauge is full, you will gain the option to spend some or all of it in exchange for unleashing a Desperation Super. Desperation Supers are extremely powerful moves that can deal very high amounts of damage, inflict various debuffs on the enemy, heal you, or bless you with helpful buffs. Sometimes several, or perhaps even all at once.**

**Note that once the battle is concluded, the gauge will empty itself completely, so make sure to spend it before you or your enemies are defeated to make the most of it.**

**You will learn more Desperation Supers at later points as you progress, and you may also end up discovering other ways to spend the gauge. Further information will be provided as needed.**

I'd have asked why this tutorial didn't immediately pop up right after I'd gained access to the feature, but something told me that it would have 'broken the pacing.' What exactly that meant I had no clue, but again - I'd survived, so no harm, no foul.

Instead… '_A super meter. The system gave me a god damn super meter._'

I wondered if I should thank my lucky stars that I wouldn't have to deal with pretzel inputs since the guide also indicated that my options for spending the gauge would appear on a list for me to select from.

"Here you go. We're out of butter, so I decided to just go ahead and give you some jam to go with it."

After some deliberation, I reasoned that it wouldn't be out of the question that I'd have to do something resembling pretzel inputs to trigger the moves anyway, and decided not to count my chickens before they hatched.

'_Meh, even so, I'll probably be fine as long as I don't get anything resembling Raging Storm or Deadly Rave. I shudder to think of what I'd have to do to pull those off._'

"Remnant to Zeiss? Hello?"

I was once again jolted back into myself when a hand waved itself through the screen in front of my eyes. "Daah-hah! Uh, right, right, toast. Sorry." My food sat in front of me, a regular-sized piece of bread browned by heating coils and given a glop of reddish jelly on top. No butter, but if I could stomach pancakes without syrup, then this was an entry-level sidequest.

Taiyang stepped back and rubbed his neck. "Sheesh. Didn't think you'd be this much of a space cadet."

"In my defense," I replied while lifting the piece of toast up to my mouth, "I've had to deal with a whole lot of stuff I didn't think I'd ever need to." Biting down, I discovered that it was exactly as I'd expected. Practically identical to every other piece of toast I'd had in my life thus far. "I would've been totally comfortable with just living out a run-of-the-mill civilian's life, but I guess whatever gods are out there decided to go 'screw that' and tossed me out here." A second bite disappeared down my throat. "It's just… not all that easy to go from sitting around at home playing video games to staring down a huge Grimm that could kill me without breaking a sweat."

He sighed. "Good point. Still, you should cut back on that. It's not a good habit to have."

"I know, I know," I groused. "It's rude, it leaves you open, all that stuff. I get it." It wasn't the first time I'd heard something along those lines, and I doubted it would be the last.

"Well, good. Recognition's the first step towards rehabilitation." He shrugged, looking away. "Or, something like that, anyways. Brothers know I'm not someone to lecture people on how they should live."

Yang decided to interject. "Oh, come on, dad, what're you talking about? You're a great role model!"

"Sweetie, please, don't." It felt like the room shifted slightly. "You of all people should know why."

It was easy to tell that she wanted to debate that. However, she chose not to, backing off and quietly lowering her eyes back to her cereal. She still managed to get the last word in with a subdued voice, though. "_I _think you're a good dad…"

Even a blind and deaf man could tell that commenting on this situation would be in poor taste, so I wisely kept my mouth shut and opted to focus on finishing my food.

The murdered mood had no intentions of letting up even after the toast was well on its way through my stomach. I gave a muted "thanks" for the meal and set my plate down on the nearest table, then silently sat back down without another word.

A fair bit of time passed, and I began to get irked, or at least something like irked-adjacent. '_Ugh, these atrocious vibes are killing me. The awkwardness was bad enough, but this level of dour? Bro, I'm straight-up not having a good time._'

The big sister and bigger daddy had already left the room by this point, and the pressure hadn't let up one bit. I would've found it impressive if it weren't so aggravating.

All of a sudden, I heard the sound of someone descending down the stairs paired with a yawn.

'_That's gotta be her…_' There was no way this wasn't going to get cringeworthy on some level. But by how much was subject to change. '_Do I move to intercept, or hold my position?_'

I became so preoccupied with my choice that I completely failed to notice when she actually entered, rendering my efforts moot. But the noises she made after clued me in on the fact that I wasn't the only person in the room anymore.

"Weh-? Oh…"

I would've facepalmed in any other situation. '_I did it again. I fucking did it again._' There was no helping that now, though, so I turned my vision in the direction of the new voice's source and looked up.

Red-tipped short black hair framing a slightly flushed face, shining silver irises pointedly avoiding me, and nervous parted lips were what graced my eyes.

**[Ruby Rose]**

**Shrinking Carmine**

**Celerian**

**Lv. 10**

The only option I could come up with was to play the fool. "Um… you, wouldn't happen to be Ruby, would you?"

It took her a moment to respond, almost like she was trying to pick and choose her words from a list too vast to be navigated effectively. So much so that she was forced to keep her vocabulary basic out of fear that she might horribly botch something. "...yeah… yeah, that's me. Ruby. Ruby Rose." She finally mustered up the courage to look me in the eye, and managed something that an unabashed optimist would call a tiny smile, coupled with a weak "hi!"

Not entirely sure of what exactly I should do, I simply lifted up my hand and performed an excruciatingly stilted wave. "...hello."

My brain was practically foaming at the mouth. '_Dear lord, this is painful beyond belief! What the hell are you two idiots playing at with this 'hi, hello' bullshit?! Do __**something **__productive, at least!_'

I decided I might as well take the initiative if only to shut it up. "So, uh, I hear you're the one that got me outta that jam yesterday?"

A slow nod and an "uh-huh" was the answer I got.

"All right…" I mumbled out. "Well, thanks. I don't know how I could've survived that if you hadn't happened to pass by. And, ah..." My gaze slipped away, dropping low. "Sorry for the trouble."

My apology seemed to galvanize her somewhat. "Whoa, whoa-whoa, hey, don't say that! I-It's no skin off my back, really! I was…" She appeared to catch up to herself, and lost her steam. "Happy to help…"

We fell silent, occasionally shifting around for no other reason than to fill the void with some kind of activity. My brain continued to steadily lose it as I tried to restart the conversation on multiple occasions, only to fail each and every time thanks to my own unwillingness to say something that could be considered improper.

'_Unbelievable. Un. Fucking. Believable. __**Look **__at yourselves! This is the exact opposite of what you should be doing right now! Come on, this isn't rocket science! It's basic human interaction, for god's sake! Just pick something to say, and __**say it!**_'

Sadly, the only thing I could offer was a grimace hidden from view by a timely glance in the other direction.

Suddenly… "Soooo, how long are you two lovebirds gonna stare at each other?"

I had to resist blowing out a sigh of relief from Yang's timely arrival. '_Halle-fucking-lujah, someone with actual social skills! Praise be upon thee, mighty dragon, for breaking this accursed stalemate!_'

Ruby's reaction, coming from a person who obviously spent more time talking to blueprints and molds than actual people, was so predictable it almost hurt. "Wh-wh-wh-_what?!_ L-lovebi-?!" She was reduced to stuttering out half-formed words and disconnected syllables accompanied by jerky gesticulations for a few more seconds before she managed to regain enough composure to string together an outraged "_Yaaaang!_"

Despite my efforts to hold it back, I could not stop the snicker that spilled out of my lungs thanks to the bout of sisterly teasing, blending in with Yang's laughter at Ruby's expense. The reaction itself may have been predictable, but that didn't stop it from still being hilarious.

The snicker died instantly when I heard Taiyang's voice innocently pipe back in. "Did I just hear something about lovebirds?"

The statement's innocuous nature made the sudden feeling of intense pants-shitting terror all the more crushing. '_Oh, balls._'

I switched gears to 'damage control' right before the guy stepped into the room again. There was no way in hell I was going out like this. "Would I be correct in assuming that a certain yellow-haired girl has a habit of interpreting situations in specific ways, particularly those that get a rise out of Ruby here?"

He stopped, considered the question, then delivered his answer not unlike one would deliver a fond but tired sigh. "Yeah, that definitely sounds like something she'd do."

I nodded. "Then my answer to your question is 'well, yes, but actually no.'"

"All right…" His tone indicated that he didn't quite believe me, but was willing to overlook this one infraction for the sake of context. I doubted I would get the same courtesy next time, though.

In any case, he elected to move to a new topic. "Well, now that everyone's here…" He turned towards the red and yellow duo, who were currently engaging in everyday sisterly activities. By which I mean that Yang was playfully mussing up Ruby's hair while she flailed around, unsuccessfully trying to stop her. "Ruby? Yang? Why don't we all introduce ourselves, get to know one another?" He gave me a pointed glance. "I'm sure you're both dying to know just who our new guest is, right?"

Yang diverting her attention towards her dad gave Ruby the opening she needed to escape, slipping away while giving the blonde a put-off glare and a pout. She brushed it off with a not-at-all sorry smile and a surrendering gesture before moving to sit down on the couch, responding at the same time. "You know it, dad. I gotta make sure Rubes didn't snag someone who won't fully appreciate her."

"Would you just cut that out?!" Ruby was not at all pleased with the continued insinuations. "He's _not _my boyfriend, or- whatever! I barely know him! He's just some guy who got his butt kicked and needed me to save him!"

"That hurts, you know," I cut in. "True, yes, but still, ouch."

It was almost impressive how quickly she backpedaled. "O-oh, shoot, sorry! Sorrysorrysorry! I-I didn't mean to- I just- I-I'm sure you're a great fighter and all-"

The somewhat over-the-top apology forced me to do the same. "Hey, hey, no need for that! I know you didn't mean anything by it, I was just ribbing you." I slouched forward a bit in regret. "I know full well how bad I am at the whole combat thing. Really, it's a miracle I survived as long as I did."

Taiyang disagreed. "I doubt it. Miracles are based on luck, and luck is just composed of fifty percent probability and fifty percent skill. Your life may have hinged on Ruby finding you when she did, but making it to that point? That was all you."

That was also true, but you'd never hear me admitting it. "...if you say so."

"Moving right along," the other blonde smoothly segued, "how 'bout we actually get on with the introductions? Here, I'll start." She straightened up slightly, putting one hand on the center of her suddenly puffed-out chest while the other went to her hip. "I'm Yang Xiao-Long. Signal Academy student, older sister to your savior there, and the most likely to knock your teeth out if you ever do anything to hurt her. And I mean _anything_." She smirked, raising an arm to flex all over me. "These guns aren't just for show, y'know!"

There was hardly any way for me to hide the involuntary gulp at the poorly-veiled threat. "Duly noted."

Taiyang stepped forward, moving to stand next to Yang. "Suppose I'll go next, then." He gave a casual half-arm wave. "Heya. Just to make sure it sinks in, I'm Taiyang Xiao-Long. I'm a teacher at Signal Academy, single father of these two adorable lights of my life, and the best brawler this side of Vale." He glanced down at Yang. "As you can see, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"No kidding," I agreed. "She looks exactly how I'd imagine a younger you. If you were a girl, that is." That glorious mane caught my attention again. "And had longer hair."

The owner was quick to address my staring with a short, concise, and not at all subtle statement. "Touch it and you die."

I found myself shrinking back at the overwhelming pulse of killing intent she'd broadcast. "Wasn't planning to."

"Good!" Yang instantly flipped back to a cheery disposition before looking at her sister, who seemed slightly nonplussed. "Do you want me to do this for you, or…?"

The pseudo-goth jumped at the address, then thought long and hard on the question before coming to a determined decision. "...no, I'll do it. I won't grow if I don't try."

Yang visibly had to resist giving her an outright round of applause, and was forced to settle for an extremely vindicated-looking fist pump instead. "_That's_ my girl! Well, go ahead!"

Said girl took a few steps forward, gathered her courage, then once again looked me in the eye, this time with a much bigger smile. "H-hi! I'm Ruby Rose! Uh, I'm also a student at Signal, and, ah, I really like looking at weapons! Especially Huntsman weapons! Umm…" She was trying, that much was clear, but it was obvious that she was sorely lacking in experience. "I-I like cookies, too! Do you like cookies?"

I was hit with this weird mixture of feelings at this introduction, composed mostly of the urge to cringe and the urge to go 'd'aww'. However, I was given no time to dwell on it, as I had to answer her question.

"Yeah, I'll never say no to a chocolate chip. Or a snickerdoodle. Or any cookie, really." I pondered a bit more. "Heck, I could probably stomach an oatmeal raisin if that was my only option."

Ruby bent over forwards, slapping a hand over her heart and gasping like she'd just been shot. "You _heretic! _You evil, unforgivable, nasty _HERETIC!_" She turned away, steadying herself on the nearest object. "I've been betrayed! I-I've been _backstabbed!_"

I couldn't stop what came out of my mouth. "And quite possibly bamboozled?"

"_Shut your mouth, you oatmeal-raisin lover!_" One of her arms snapped back, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "This is an act of war between us, and I won't take it lying down! Prepare yourself!"

I shot the other two people in the room a bemused look. Yang responded with averted eyes and a neck-rub along with a slightly embarrassed expression, while Taiyang just wore a helpless not-quite-smile. Both were obviously going to be no help at all.

Suppressing a groan, I looked back at the objecting finger. "Prepare myself for what?"

Ruby fumbled for a moment, before a lightbulb of an idea came to her. "For a conversion! I need to prove that your notions of oatmeal raisin cookies being good are incorrect!"

I blinked. "I… never said they were good, though? I just said that I'd eat them if I didn't have any other choice. They're not exactly tasty, I'll give you that, but they're not terrible, y'know?"

"...eh?" My statement stopped her in her tracks, and her face began to grow even redder as she realized that I hadn't actually said that I outright liked the hated fusion of fruit and sugar. Eventually, she hung her head and covered it with her hands, muttering out a low "_idiot!_"

For whatever reason, seeing her like that was like being impaled on a needle. Which was unpleasant, and needed to stop. "Hey, don't worry about it. It was an honest mistake, I'm sure. And either way, I can't exactly hold it against you."

A solitary silver eye peeked up. "...really?"

"Yeah," I nodded, plastering on a smile. "No biggie."

It was then that I realized that we weren't the only ones experiencing this moment. Unfortunately, by the time I noticed the shit-eating grin on Yang's face, it was too late. "You sure you're not into each other? That looked pretty romantic from where I'm sitting."

At this point, Ruby seemed about two hundred percent done with her sister. "Yang. For the love of all that is pure in this world, **stop**."

Taiyang agreed. "You might wanna dial it back a bit there, sunshine. You know how she gets when you push her buttons too much."

"Alright, alright." She wisely backed off. "I'll hold back… for now." Her vision suddenly locked into me. "Okay, buddy. You know all about us. Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Roger that," I replied. '_Here we go._'

I cleared my throat, then lifted a hand up and gave a lazy two-fingered salute. "Hello, happy people, my name is Zeiss Serven. I just woke up after hiking through a forest and nearly dying horribly on…" I paused, taking a moment to recount exactly how many times my health bar had come close to hitting or had hit zero. "Four separate occasions. My hobbies include rifle shooting, golf, and wasting my life away staring at a screen." I snapped a fingergun and a wink in the general direction of Yang and Ruby. "Pleased to make your acquaintances, you crazy customers."

All of a sudden, the incomplete objective at the side of my HUD that I'd forgotten about up to this point turned green, at last registering my success.

**[MAIN QUEST COMPLETE!]**

**[Grimm Island]**

**Rewards Received:**

**150 EXP**

**100 Lien**

'_...huh, about time._'

"Rifle shooting?" I'd clearly caught the interest of the weapons nerd. "What kinds of rifles?"

I shrugged. "Nothing bigger than a .22. And nothing outside of a bolt-action." My thoughts began drifting off again. "Though I've always wanted to try full-auto…"

"Hm…" I wasn't the only one floating off into my own world, it seemed. I could almost see the gears turning inside the designer's head. "Bolt-action… full-auto…"

Yang seemed to already know where this was going. "Getting another one of your insane weapon ideas, sis?"

"Bwuh-?" She caught up with herself. "Oh, uh… maybe?"

Taiyang sighed. "Just make sure not to spend too much time cooped up in your lab, all right? You haven't been getting enough sun this summer. It's not healthy."

"But Daaad!" She pouted. "Summer break is my chance to do everything they won't let us do in first-year Design and Creation! Where else am I supposed to find an outlet for all these ideas the school won't let me use?"

Yang shot her a flat look. "Second-year Design and Creation, duh. C'mon, Ruby, you can wait another month."

"No, I can't!" Clearly, this was a sore subject for the system-repressed geek. "Art waits for no woman, Yang! These ideas need to be made real _now_, and I'm gonna make 'em if it's the last thing I do!"

The elder sister groaned, likely fed up with doing this song and dance for the umpteenth time. "Fine. Just… at least try to restrain yourself from experimenting too much, okay? That last incident scared me and Dad half to death. Not to mention how you probably made everyone downtown jump six feet in the air from how loud it was."

Ruby folded her arms in displeasure, but acquiesced in the end. "...no promises."

I managed to pick out a surprising amount of information from this exchange. '_Huh, so if I just heard everything correctly… the school year seems to be based off that of America's standard schedule, since we're apparently in the middle of summer break, and Yang implied that Ruby will be able to take a second-year class once the break is over._'

That naturally flowed into another subject. '_That also means that Ruby is going into her second year… which means, assuming that Beacon follows the same schedule… that I have approximately one year before she interrupts Roman's little robbery and nets herself a place in Beacon Academy's last class._'

A year. One singular year to buff up and stock up… wait a moment. '_I… turned sixteen two months ago…_'

Why that little piece of information decided to come back to me now after being absent for the past twenty-four-plus hours, I had no idea. But its timing couldn't have been better.

'_If I could get myself an application and join their class…_' I would gain access to classes with valuable information, a team to call my own, and a great excuse to stick close to the people with the plot armor. Sure, I'd have to deal with Ozpin practically breathing down my neck and the actual action of going to school, but if it got me a one-way ticket to survival, I could deal with it no problem. I could be pretty inconspicuous if I wanted to, anyway (I think).

There was also the matter of possible alterations to canon I might accidentally make, especially in regards to team formations, but I could deal with those thoughts later. But not before I noted to myself that I should try and find a way to mark others on my minimap, as that would essentially allow me to pick my partner.

I took another look at Ruby and Yang's levels. '_Ten and seventeen…_' They gave me the impression that the average level for a first-year Beacon student was around level twenty. '_I managed to get to level four in a single day, just from fighting a couple monsters and a tutorial boss. At the rate I'm going, I could be Beacon-level before the month's out._' Of course, that was assuming that the experience curve wouldn't change, or that the system wouldn't somehow restrict me from getting too big for my britches, which were both very likely occurrences. Steamrolling every obstacle in my way didn't exactly make for good entertainment for whoever was behind my screen, after all.

'_Well, unless your name's Saitama._ _Then it's totally fine. But my name is Zeiss, not Saitama, so oh well._'

The system actually seemed to acknowledge this grand plan, going by what happened next.

**[MAIN QUEST ALERT!]**

**[Yellow Brick Road]**

**You have discovered that you have a year of preparatory time before Team RWBY's first year at Beacon Academy begins. Make the most of it by gathering as many resources, connections, and experience points as you can.**

**Objective(s):**

**-Gain entry into Beacon Academy**

**-Obtain a Personal Weapon**

**-Reach level 20 **

**Side Objective(s):**

**1- Achieve a weapon rank of C or better with your Personal Weapon**

**2- Achieve a support rank of E or better with the 4 members of the future team RWBY **

**3- Achieve a support rank of E or better with the 4 members of the future team JNPR**

**4- Achieve a support rank of E or better with other ancillary characters**

**Reward(s):**

**-20,000 Lien**

**Side Objective Reward(s):**

**1- Arms Scroll**

**2- Skill "A-Team Assistance"**

**3- Skill "B-Team Backup"**

**4- 1,000 Lien per character**

'_Oooohh, lordy._'

There was a lot to unpack here. The lack of any experience reward was immediately suspicious, giving credence to my hunch that the system was going to limit my EXP gain somehow. There was also the bonus rewards to check, too - thankfully, I was able to get a sneak peek at the item and skill descriptions to see if they were worth it.

Being an avid Fire Emblem fan, I could make an educated guess on what the Arms Scroll did beforehand, and was proven correct when its blurb stated that it was a one-use item that could instantly increase any of my weapon ranks by one level. A very valuable little thing, especially since the guide had stated that with each new weapon rank came either a brand-new weapon skill or a substantial upgrade to an existing one.

The skills were comparatively less impressive, but were no less useful. They both had the same effect, that being a ten percent increase to all stats whenever a member of the skill's respective team was in the party (RWBY for A-Team Assistance and JNPR for B-Team Backup).

On their own they weren't anything too powerful, but percentage increases could become very, _very_ scary once they started stacking. Hell, the Squad Solidarity Skill I'd obtained when I hit level 4 did the exact same thing to everyone in my party if it had two or more members, counting me. That was already a twenty percent boost to all stats, which was frankly ridiculous considering that the trigger conditions were just "have someone from team RWBY/JNPR in your party." Not to mention if I had both skills and one member from both teams in the party, that was a whopping _thirty _percent increase. You see where this is going, right?

'_Oh, god, this is already starting to reach game-breaking levels._' Like the skills themselves, thirty percent wasn't much on paper, but in practice… oh, man. And that was just with three skills I could obtain before the story proper even got going.

However, that was assuming that I could actually meet the requirements needed to unlock them in the first place. I had a golden opportunity to scratch two off the board right in front of me, but those were the easiest ones. The others, well…

'_One's the heiress to a multimillion dollar company with a monopoly on all things Dust, another's a literal terrorist, yet another's a celebrity, and two more are completely off the grid. The only other easy mark is Jaune._'

That also wasn't counting that I had no idea whatsoever where half of them even lived. I could only guess that Ren and Nora were constantly on the move, and Pyrrha was somewhere in Mistral - probably Argus, given the statue that would be erected there. Blake could be anywhere in Mistral or Vale, and so could Jaune.

'_Actually, wait… Pyrrha should still be attending Sanctum Academy at this point, right? I just need to find the place, do a bit of loitering, and that problem will solve itself. Jaune's family might also be well-known to the point that a quick google search or whatever passes for it here could lead me straight to their front door._'

That was two problems taken care of right off the bat. But that still left the issue of the other four… and that I would need to do a whole lot of traveling. '_Great. I might end up having to infiltrate both the White Fang and the freakin' Schnee Mansion. All for a god damn tiny-ass buff that could potentially turn a bunch of future fights into total jokes._'

I released a mental sigh and minimized the quest window, turning my attention back to the family of three in front of me in preparation for some more uncomfortable socializing.

'_Well... in for a Penny, in for a pound, I guess._'

I was forced to suppress the sudden urge to gag. '_Oh, __**wow**__. I bet even Yang would've called a groaner foul on that one._'

* * *

**Save your game?**

**Please wait…**

**Game saved.**

* * *

**A/N: Finally… after almost two months, IT IS HERE. Also, holy shit, it's literally 7,000+ words of just four characters in a room talking to each other.**

**In any case, enter the Rose-Xiao-Long family once again! I've spent a fair bit of time brainstorming how I wanted to interpret them this time around, and I think you'll like what I've got in store. (But I'd still love to hear your opinion on how I've written them so far. Remember, reviews are both our food and our heroin as fic writers, and I need my fix, damn it.)**

**We've also got another difference from the original version - Zeiss only has a single year of prep time instead of two. I kinda realized a while back that giving him two years was overkill and would end up accomplishing nothing of real value thanks to a few extenuating circumstances, so I've cut it in half to trim the fat and keep things a bit more contained. All the pre-Beacon story arcs I have planned should still fit nicely into this shortened timeframe, anyway.**

**In all honesty, giving him a long-form quest like that probably wasn't the best idea considering I haven't exactly planned out the scaling that far ahead, but what's done is done, and I can always just fix it in-universe with system updates if it becomes too big of a problem. Besides, most of the real good rewards are locked behind the Initiation quest, and that'll be easy to figure out when I actually get there.**

**But, anyway, the next chapter or so will be all about Zeiss's adventures in Patch and the sidequests therein, featuring two spunky teens who are all too happy to join the party and a dad who tries his best to keep them all in line. But before I go, I need to give y'all something else.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Gag Reel**

"Well, hello there, sleeping beauty," Taiyang said. "Finally get that true love's kiss of yours?"

Zeiss turned around with half-lidded eyes and a suave smirk. "No, but maybe you'd be willing to offer?"

Their composure held for about three seconds before they both burst out laughing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Zeiss grunted. "The sun was about to set, the thing was snoring right in the middle of my path, and I had to find a safe zone before the real nasty creepies started crawling out. Unfortunately, I'm dummy thicc, and the clap of my ass cheeks is very effective at waking things up."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Taiyang smiled. "Now, why don't you sit your ass down on that couch and eat your god damn toast?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"In my defense," Zeiss replied while lifting the piece of toast up to his mouth, "I've had to deal with a whole lot of stuff I didn't think I'd ever need to." He bit in, and chewed for a few seconds. "Like how you make really crappy toast. Like, seriously, what the hell?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Taiyang disagreed. "I doubt it. Miracles are ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will." Rap music started playing out of nowhere. "Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain and a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Roger that," Zeiss replied. '_Here we go._'

He then smirked evilly, and pointed to himself with a thumb. "_KONO __**DIO**_ _DA!_"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"But Daaad!" Ruby pouted. "There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it! So the annual problem for my generation is finding a good way to spend it!"

Zeiss grinned. "Like maybe… building a rocket or fighting a mummy?" And that was as far as he got before he became unable to hold in his laughter.

* * *

**Aaaaand that's all I could come up with.**

**As always, feedback is appreciated, and have a great rest of your day!**

**Sniper OUT!**


	5. Maybe I'm Not Here at All

**File loaded.**

**Initializing...**

* * *

"Ruby, come on."

The little reaper in question turned to look at me. "What?"

I glanced down at the load she was carrying. "You don't need _that _much."

Her eyes flicked down to the three large bags of chocolate chips cradled in her arms before going back up. "Whaddaya mean, I don't need this much? If anything, this isn't enough!"

"Ahah, no." I didn't think it was possible for my expression to become any more deadpan. "I clearly remember Yang specifically saying not to let you get any more than four pounds."

"Hey, I'll have you know this stuff is lighter than it looks," she lied, suspiciously avoiding eye contact in that moment.

"Oh, really?" One of my eyebrows quirked up as I moved closer. "Lemme see that bag for a minute."

She backed away a step in turn, shifting the bags to face them in the other direction. "W-why do you wanna do that?"

I huffed at the resistance, narrowing my eyes. "Not willing to share, eh?" Shrugging, I turned towards the stack of identical bags for sale next to us. "Oh, well. I'll just check these instead."

All of a sudden, I got a faceful of red and black. "H-hey, uh, c'mon, you don't really need to do that, don't you?"

"Oh, but I do," was my response. "I'd hate to get on your sister's bad side."

At this close a distance, I could just make out the tiny droplets of sweat on her forehead. "She's not, ah, that bad when she gets angry…"

'_Alright, enough of this._' "Ruby. Let me see those bags."

She said nothing, continuing to block my view of the limp containers.

An exasperated groan left me. "Do we really need to take this to Yang? We both know you're not getting all of that past her."

Her reaction told me that she did in fact know that, but wasn't quite willing to accept it.

"_Ruby…_" I did my best to give off a 'disappointed mother' impression, and surprisingly, it worked.

She sighed defeatedly, putting two of the three bags back where they had come from. "Fiiiiiine. You win."

"Good." Just to be absolutely sure, I grabbed one and scanned it, finding that its weight was just shy of going over the limit. "Alright, you're clean." With that taken care of, we began moving away. "Don't understand why you even tried in the first place, honestly. You and your sister have done this before, right? Doesn't she always stop you from trying to pull stuff like that?"

The only answer I got was a small blush that appeared on her cheeks, as she deigned to remain silent.

'_...meh, she's fourteen. God knows how much my impulses ran amok that year._'

Dropping the topic and pulling out the list I'd been given on a scrap of paper, I ran through what we'd piled up in our sacks so far. "Okay, so on top of the chocolate chips… we got the syrup refill, the strawberries, the apples, the broccoli-" Ruby winced "-the extra buns, and…" I had to suppress my gag reflex upon reading the last item. "The _brussel sprouts._"

My companion was not as successful in stopping the hellspawn-induced dry heaving. Sparing a moment to cringe at it, I continued on. "Yang should be handling the rest, so I think we're done here."

One scene change later, the three of us were walking out the door of Sealen's Stopover, presumably one of, if not the only shop in Patch that looked anything like a modern grocery store. And if it wasn't, it was the only one with a sailor aesthetic.

'_Man, it's like the whole island's in the middle of one huge identity crisis. They have a freaking combat school here, with all the bells and whistles expected of one in this day and age, but they hardly have any shops around that get the same treatment?_' It was absurd to the point that I couldn't even really laugh at it all that much. '_Fucking management needs to make up their minds on whether or not they want to commit to selling the rustic countryside vibe._'

Or it could've just been finance problems, skullduggery, and other assorted government shenanigans that were responsible for the inconsistency. The Valean Council wasn't exactly given the most flattering portrayal in the original series. (Well, what little of them _did _get portrayed, anyway.) Assuming Patch didn't have its own governing body, of course.

Though, that probably explained why almost all of the places around here were locally owned and operated, now that I thought about it. All the signs and advertisements were too low-budget to be anywhere close to franchise-level.

Like that one over there. Literally just one of those hanging metal plaques straight out of a pre-20th century frontier town.

'_...wait. Does that say "armory"?_'

I caught the attention of the sisters. "Hey, you two? That shop over there wouldn't happen to sell weapons, would it?"

"The Armory? Yeah!" Ruby had an immediate answer. "You can't tell at first glance, but it's practically a treasure trove of functional antiques and modern beauties!" It was easy to tell that she was trying very hard to hold back from going overboard and spilling everything about it. "The guy who runs it is… well, he's kinda odd, but I guarantee that his stuff won't disappoint you!"

"Huh," I muttered, lifting a hand up to rub my chin as I glanced back at the place. "Sounds like high praise, coming from you…"

Yang seemed to pick up on what I was thinking. "Why, you wanna buy something?"

I turned back. "Yeah, actually. The sword I found in the forest didn't really make it out with me, and it wasn't the best thing in the world, anyway." Holding up a hand to my face, I moved the attached fingers around. "I could probably do decently well against any fodder that may come after me with my hands and feet, but 'decently well' has a pretty good chance of me ending up dead, and I'd be straight screwed against anything scarier than a Beowolf."

"Y'know, me and Dad might be able to fix that," she cut in. "A good regimen, couple spars, bit of tutoring, and the right diet, and you'll be turning Grimm into paste with those fists in no time." The brawler offered a wink. "Sounds great, right?"

A single chuckle bubbled up in my throat. "The offer's appreciated, but I wouldn't want to impose any more than I already have." I wasn't quite over how they'd let me sleep in their guest room last night. Probably something to do with basic human decency, but… well, that's an issue for another time. "And I'd prefer to keep the nasty sharp bits a fair space _away _from my flesh at all times, thank you very much. Even a pointy stick's better than having nothing to guard with."

"And just what do you think I have these for?" One of her gauntlets extended across her forearm, covering it almost entirely.

"More stopping power, if I had to guess," I responded with a flat stare. "No offense, but you seem like the kind of person that never remembers to block."

I heard Ruby stifle a snort while Yang remained silent. Then she blinked, and I heard a sound suspiciously similar to that of a shotgun being pumped when she threw back her arm, eyes red.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't sock you right now."

The blood drained from my face. '_Well… shit._'

I felt myself involuntarily gulp as my vision swapped from her volcanic irises to her deployed weapon. "That's not actually _loaded_, is it?"

She said nothing, keeping that flaming death stare locked onto my head and her arm prepared.

"..._snrk._"

And just like that, the tension went out the window as Yang broke into a fit of sniggering. "Oh man, the look on your face! I can't believe you seriously thought I was gonna hit you!"

It was at that moment that I realized I'd been played, and I could only facepalm. "Oh, you ffff_freakin'_..." A groan was forced out of my lungs. "Bloody Huntsmen. That's not funny, you know." Of course, I knew I'd probably be the one laughing if our positions were switched, but now wasn't the time to ruminate on the mile-long list of hypocritical things that had come out of my mouth in my years of being alive. "But, yeah. I do want something to put between me and the red-eyed nasties. Preferably something sharp, or better, something that can shoot sharp things."

The grin slid off the blonde's face. "I hope for your sake that the red-eyed bit didn't include me."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I immediately replied.

"Good. Although, Zeiss, I've gotta ask..." Down and up those peepers went, giving me a once-over. "Do you really have the money to go and do that? I'm pretty generous, but I've only known you for about twenty four hours, give or take, and I prefer giving cash only to people that I'm sure I can trust."

I blinked. '_That's… a good point, actually. How much Lien __**do **__I have?_'

A quick stat sheet call revealed that I did in fact have a respectable nest egg. "I've got over two hundred on me right now. Of course, I'm a newbie at this, so you tell me."

I got a slow nod as an answer. "That works." Yang then took a look at the grocery bags we were all holding. "Well, anyway, you probably could've picked a better time to bring that up, but…" She trailed off, the gears turning in her noggin. "I guess we do have daylight to spare. One more visit can't hurt."

I waved my hands in a negative motion. "Hey, you don't have to stay if you don't want to. Wouldn't want to make you carry those for longer than you need to. I can find my way back easy, don't worry." Quite amazing, what having a minimap did for your sense of direction.

"Oh, trust me, these sacks are nothing," she assured with a smirk. "Besides, you're giving Rubes an excuse to indulge herself that doesn't involve high chances of explosive reactions, and I say that's a win for both of us."

Ruby, for her part, took the barbed comment gracefully. The opportunity she was getting probably helped with that, if her excited vibrating frame was any indication.

So, if the two of them were okay with it… "If you say so. Thanks."

"Thank me later," Yang responded while moving in the direction of the entrance. "Now, c'mon."

The Armory, as Ruby had called it, was a fairly contained store. Compared to most of the stores I'd seen in my last life, it was somewhat small, but it made up for it with how compacted and tightly organized it was. There was almost no wasted space either on the walls or the shelves, and I'm sure that if I had the capacity to give an impressed whistle, I would've. Sadly, despite years of wishing, I had long known that I could not whistle in any way, and thus I was forced to settle for a low "_daaaaaamn._"

The reaper immediately started zipping around, checking to see if anything new had come in since the last time she'd paid the place a visit. Yang followed her, doubtless with the intention to reel her in a little. I was left to wander aimlessly and stare at everything, until...

"Like what you see, eh?"

I turned around at the voice, and was met with the visage of the shopkeeper, lounging behind the counter. If his tag was to be believed, his name was Armin, and if his current outfit was anything to go by, what with the old pilot headgear, goggles, and drab fatigues combo, then Ruby certainly hadn't been off the mark in her description.

Nonetheless, I nodded. "Sure do. Where's it all come from?" He had almost anything that a budding fighter could ever want. All manner of swords, knives, polearms, axes, bows, rifles, pistols, shotguns… hell, I'm pretty sure I saw a grenade launcher somewhere in there.

"Much as I'd like to tell ya," he (likely disingenuously) lamented, "I'm afraid all business will let me say is that some of the sharper blades and other man-splitters come from the local smithy down the road. A small-time guy like me can't exactly point you in the direction of competition, you understand?"

"Yeah, I gotcha." He did have a point. I was an unfamiliar face, and I didn't doubt that he'd worked out that I didn't live here. If he told me where his stock originated, I would be likely to simply buy it from the source at a price that wasn't marked up when I eventually got around to leaving Patch. Thus, he would lose a sale by proxy, and potentially even a future customer.

But that was enough about salesmanship 101 and basic business strategies that anyone with a lick of common sense could figure out on their own. I had wares to browse! "Alright, so, I've got a budget of around two hundred. I'd say my preferences are…" I took a moment to think. "Swords and rifles, either bolt-action or semi-auto." It was in my best interests to keep it relatively low-price, and I had a feeling that something fully automatic would raise the cost too much for my liking. "Anything you can point me towards?"

Armin smirked, tapping his chin. "Don't wanna break the piggy bank, huh? Okay, I can dig it. Cheaper stuff's usually in the back corners." He gestured in their direction, and I happily took the information.

True to the owner's word, most of the items in these spots were within the lower price ranges. Although, none went below the price range of 90 lien, and the one sword that did was pretty low-tier from what the system told me, at least in comparison to everything else. The swords themselves bottomed out at around 100, while the rifles looked to be in the 190s at the lowest.

This basically meant that I had to pick either one or the other. Having only 230 lien, it didn't seem like walking out of the Armory with both a melee and ranged weapon was feasible. So, with that in mind, I decided that I was better off going with the one that had better range, and switched exclusively to checking the rifles.

A short time after I did, I happened upon a very familiar-looking piece.

'_What in the… is that a Garand?_'

The outward appearance suggested that the answer was some form of 'yes'. Curiosity piqued, I shot it an Observe.

**[M1 Garrent Rifle]**

**Mt: 30**

**Wt: 15**

**DM: 75%**

**Cap: 8**

**Rank: E**

**An old infantry rifle produced during the later years of the Great War that has survived the generations since its conclusion. The rough edges in its ancient design are made obvious when compared to more modern battle implements, but despite its age, it still packs as much of a punch as it did in its glory days.**

There was an arrow labeled "expand" on the right side of the window. Pressing it unfolded a window with a significantly more detailed breakdown of the gun, including its official designations, chambered caliber, effective range, and a bunch of other little tidbits that I forced my eyes to skim over so as to not overload myself. I hit the arrow again, closing the window, and decided to satisfy myself with the basics.

The "DM" and "Cap" stat labels were definitely new. For these, the system had this to say.

**[DM: 75% - Dexterity Modifier. Determines how much of your DEX stat is added to the gun's Mt stat when calculating damage dealt. Note that this is ignored whenever a gun skill that uses the wielder's DEX stat to determine damage dealt is triggered.]**

**[Cap: 8 - Capacity. Determines how many rounds the gun can fire before it needs to be reloaded.]**

The longer explanation of the DM stat caught my eye quickly. Thinking on it a little, I concluded that it was probably an attempt at correcting the imbalance that guns would inevitably bring to a 'realistic' game that heavily featured swords and spears and other assorted melee weapons, what with their performance being basically impossible to modify by normal human means like strength or focus. Nerfing their undoubtedly ludicrous base Mt in favor of letting the user's stats do more of the work would go a long way towards leveling the playing field.

There was probably a witty gag in there somewhere about how the system's handling of bullet-slingers flew directly in the face of why they were invented in the first place, but I wasn't feeling too motivated to find it.

(Then again, there was also something to be said about the interaction between bullets and aura, or grimmflesh. Maybe the system wasn't actually nerfing the weapon's power, and was instead just basing it off how effective it was against the natural defenses of Huntsmen and Grimm. Questions for later, I supposed.)

The weapon's actual description, though, was what really drew my attention. If I remembered correctly, the Great War took place approximately 80 years prior to the start of the show, which meant that this thing right here was nearly a century old!

Which made its shockingly low price tag of 180L that much more ridiculous. This thing was a freaking antique! I was willing to bet that there were collectors out there who'd kill to get a gem like this in their stock! So why did it cost so little compared to every other rifle on the shelves?

I was so wrapped up in the thing that I failed to notice Ruby walking up behind me. "Oh, I remember this old-timer. It's been there in that spot for almost as long as I can remember." She gave a sad sigh after a brief period of admiring the gun. "I feel bad for it, y'know. Armin said it was in pretty bad shape when he got it. He did his best to fix that, but I guess it wasn't enough to convince anyone to get it for themselves. Not when the shiny new AR models were sitting on the other wall." She huffed. "Their loss, I say, but… well, I can't exactly take it off his hands if I don't have plans to use it like it deserves. I mean, the Garrent's a Great War veteran. It just wouldn't feel like... I'd be doing it justice, if that makes any sense." I then heard her mutter something to herself that sounded suspiciously like "and Dad would never let me spend that much on something like this."

'_So that's why…_' It did make sense, to a degree. It looked fine to my untrained eye, but an expert would easily be able to tell if a piece like this had been refurbished - or 'tampered with,' as they were more likely to see it. And there were much better options, if you were willing to spend at least fifty-something lien more. The system seemed very dedicated to shoving that fact in my face.

Unfortunately, all of them were locked behind the D weapon rank, which was going to take a bit of work to reach. And I couldn't exactly leave with nothing and come back later when I was better qualified - I had no rifle of my own to grind up my rank with.

Ergo, I didn't really have much of a choice. Not only was the Garrent the cheapest rifle that suited my needs, it was also the easiest to use, and from what I remembered of its Earthen counterpart, easy to maintain. Outside of a few concerns like damage output and low rounds-per-mag capacity (not to mention the possibility of getting hit with the infamous Garand Thumb), there was no reason for me not to buy it.

"Huh," was what Armin had to say on my choice after a short period of bewilderment. "Didn't see that comin' at all. You sure it's what you want?"

I answered his question with one of my own. "Can it put a bullet through a Beowolf's brain at thirty paces?"

He blinked, then smiled. "It sure can." He then stood up and headed towards the door behind him. "Gimme a minute and I'll get you some en-blocs for the old girl."

(It would take me until we were well on our way back to realize that he hadn't asked me to show any kind of license or identification before he'd sold me the firearm. But when I considered the general state of Remnant as compared to Earth, it made a bit more sense why. Well, either that, or he really was off his rocker and shouldn't have been running that shop in the first place.)

Yang, who had gravitated towards us when she noticed that we were finishing up, nodded in approval at my purchase. "I think you just made his day. Good on you." Then she gave an evil smirk. "Then again, it's not exactly that hard. Nothing lights his eyes up like _Armin' _people."

I could barely make out the sound of a palm meeting a face from the room behind the counter while Ruby groaned and my expression became two hundred percent Done with the blonde's shit. "Do that again, and I might just do some _harmin'_ of my own."

"That's the spirit!"

* * *

Signal Academy, for all my expectations of a combat school, looked rather… ordinary.

The campus was a fair bit smaller than I'd thought it would be, but when I considered the surroundings, it became a bit more understandable. Compared to Vale, or any of the other well-known cities across the four kingdoms, Patch wasn't all that densely populated. Which meant that there weren't a whole lot of kids in need of education around.

In that manner, it called to mind a regular small-scale suburban school, only this one didn't have to bother with district rivalries against sister campuses. One long, somewhat thin three-story building shaped like a U was the centerpiece, surrounded by open space and a few other single-floor structures. Nothing too terribly fancy.

The school itself, however, wasn't what Ruby and I were here for today. Rather, we were more interested in the neighboring holotarget range. It was technically the school's property, but was kept open year-round for anyone who had something to shoot with. And it just so happened that our trigger fingers were getting itchy.

Well, not really. I needed to get myself properly acquainted with my now day-old purchase, and the little reaper was looking to run some live fire tests on a prototype she'd been working on.

It took me until we walked through the door into the actual range area for me to realize that I didn't have any ear protection. As if on cue, somebody fired a shot at that moment.

It was… loud, sure, but it didn't feel any louder than a good hard smacking sound.

'_...wait, what?_' I looked around the place, scanning the other shooters present (some of which did have earplugs or headphones), and then heard another weapon discharge. '_I don't see any suppressors on those things. So why aren't my ears ringing…?_'

Completely lost, I turned towards my companion. "Uh, I don't mean to sound weird, but… they're not using some new cartridge type that cuts back on the noise, are they?"

She looked at me like I'd grown a second head for a moment, then seemed to catch on to my issue. "Right, you wouldn't know. Well, I guess the simple version is that aura happens to be really, really good at protecting you in all sorts of different ways." Both her hands came up in a not-quite-shrugging motion. "Pretty convenient for Huntsmen in the field, since, y'know, they kinda have to keep both their eyes and ears open all the time if they wanna stay alive, and noise cancellers don't exactly help with that."

"Huh…" was the only word I could offer for a bit. "That _is _convenient."

She still had a bit more to say, however. "Although, it stops doing that if your aura gets broken. But I don't think you need me to remind you why getting your aura broken is a bad thing."

"Right." And that was the end of that conversation.

We split off after collecting the mandatory safety glasses from the racks. Sound may not have been dangerous to people like us, but an unlucky ricochet was still very much something to watch out for, even if we did have personal soul-powered deflector shields. Besides, they were aesthetically pleasing.

Walking up to one of the open stations, I slung the rifle off my shoulder and settled in. A quick once-over of the controls told me everything I needed to know in regards to how to handle my own holotarget. With that done, I turned it on, moved the featureless projection to a nice and simple distance of fifteen meters, and carefully inserted one of the clips into my new weapon.

Now that everything was set, it was time to start blasting. Lifting up the gun into a typical standing rifleman's position, I flicked the safety off and took aim, lining up the iron sights on the center of my target's chest as best I could.

'_Breathe in… half-exhale, and…_'

I pulled the trigger.

Having only ever fired rifles chambered for .22 caliber bullets, the recoil of a .30-06 round was a pretty big step up from what I was used to. Thankfully, the combined forces of the Garrent's weight and my buffed strength stat turned what likely would've been a sore shoulder into a much less inconvenient impact.

The projection now displayed a red dot on the chest area, pinpointing where on the target that the bullet I'd just shot had passed through.

'_...mm, I'll try a couple more shots before I move it back._'

I repeated the same process three more times, putting three more red dots on the hologram before lowering the weapon and flicking the safety on. Looking down at the screen on the control panel, displaying a miniaturized version of the station's target, I saw exactly where those four shots I'd just fired had landed. As an added quality-of-life feature, they were also all numbered in the order they'd been fired in.

'_Oh, good lord,_' I blanched as I viewed my less than stellar results. '_It's like I was barely even trying to group my shots. Is this what the weapon rank deficiency thing does to guns?_'

Each of the dots were at least two inches apart from each other, which was frankly almost unbelievable considering the distance I'd been shooting from. I mean, I'd always known that my hands could never stay completely still, even if it looked like they were, but this was just plain ridiculous. It was like someone had decided to plug away at the target right after downing a coffee with one too many added sugars.

Thankfully, the system took this break in the action as an invitation to spawn a certain few notifications.

**[(Assault Rifle) weapon rank increased to E.]**

**[Weapon Skill "Primer Burst" received.]**

Satisfaction abounded. '_That takes care of the rank problem. Which should mean that the egregious accuracy issues should be gone…_' As always, the skill blurb turned itself into a little ball with an icon. This one in particular was somewhat similar to the icons of the multi-hit skills I'd obtained so far - three bullets, with speed trails at their tails, pointed towards the left. It should be noted, however, that it was also the first skill icon with a yellow color, and the first to occupy the brand-new yellow section in the Skill Ring.

'_If I remember Xenoblade X correctly, that means it must be a ranged skill._' That series did love color-coding its active skills. '_By that logic, red skills are melee, green are restoration and general support, and orange is…_' Huh. What _was _orange? The only orange skill I had was Armorcrash, and that was one I'd gotten by leveling up, not from increasing any of my weapon ranks.

I decided to inspect the skill's description. '_All right, let's see here… hm. It doesn't specify what kind of attack the skill actually performs, just that it has a 30% damage bonus as compared to a regular attack and that it can break armor._' There was no mention anywhere of any sort of specific weapon that the skill needed to be triggered. '_I remember using it in conjunction with that mule kick I pulled against the Alpha Beowolf, and with the slash that downed it, but if it was melee-only, then it would be red…_'

My brain decided to remind me at that point that I still had a rifle in my arms. '_Wait a second. If yellow is ranged and red is melee, and orange is what you get if you mix the two colors…_' I glanced back up at the holotarget, then to the skill description, back to the Garrent, then the target, then the description, then the target again.

'_Only one way to find out, I guess._'

Lining up the sights once again, I hit the safety and focused.

'_Same as before. Inhale… half-exhale, and-_'

**[Armorcrash]**

The skill usage notice was a hard confirm that yes, I had just pulled it off using a ranged weapon. I also hadn't been able to notice it, but the bullet's increased velocity was a dead giveaway that the shot had been enhanced.

Well, that and the recoil. The damn thing felt like it came this close to popping my arm out of its socket when the stock slammed into my shoulder, even despite my soul-powered protective shell.

'_Note to self - try and find a way to shoot that skill without causing severe bruising to the crook of my arm._' I didn't need to be any kind of fighter to recognize that little side effect as being a huge liability. The damage and pain didn't last all that long, what with the aura-Gamer's Body combination I had going, but the distraction it offered while it was there could very well be fatal. '_Owww…_'

An increase in strength, resistance, or both was probably in order to nip that problem in the bud. Unfortunately, I really couldn't do anything about that at the moment, since the guide had explicitly stated that it was impossible for me to grind extra stat points from training or other such methods. Which was kinda (read: completely and totally) bullshit, but rules were rules, and even if I did have a way to bypass that limitation, I wasn't really keen on finding out just what the system would be willing to do to stop me.

Hold up. Extra stat points. '_Don't I get five of those every time I level up?_'

As a matter of fact, I did. My status page proudly displayed the label of "unspent points" right below my actual stats, with the number 15 next to it.

'_Huh… why didn't I use any of those before the Ursa encounter?_' I tended to lean towards the whole 'every little bit helps' philosophy whenever I was trying to get something done. '_A whole 15 extra points towards something like vitality, or agility, or even resistance could've gone a long way towards making that whole debacle suck less than it did._' Hell, if I'd dumped them all into agility, that could very well have meant the difference between running being a viable option and running being ultimately futile.

In conclusion: I needed to cut back on my hoarding tendencies. The "what if I need it later" mentality didn't do much good if there was no "later," after all.

'_It does still have merit though,_' I had to admit. '_Maybe I should work out some kind of system for how I should spend any available points depending on how dangerous an upcoming fight looks like…? Bah, now's not the time._' And I'd probably be better off just eyeballing those on a case-by-case basis instead of spending time trying to puzzle together some kind of hard-numbers threat evaluator. Everyone knew that scouters and power levels were bullshit, anyhow.

(Why the idea of Observe being the exact same thing yet also being exempt from that verdict never occurred to me, I have no clue.)

Either way, there was no point in spending them now. I would need to wait until I found myself in another sufficiently dangerous situation before I considered which stats to boost. I wouldn't want to buff my strength now if my next near-death experience was going to be another hopeless boss fight, since it would be effectively worthless there.

So! With all that introspection over and done with, it was time to get back to what I was here for. Setting myself up again, I sent off the final three rounds remaining in the mag while aiming at where the Armorcrash blast had passed through the target.

Upon firing the last bullet - and relishing in the fact that the rifle's iconic _ping _upon ejecting an empty magazine was a multiversal constant - I took another look at the mini-display on the console. Suffice to say, I was much more pleased with my performance this time around. '_That's what I should be seeing at this range. Nice, tight grouping, right around center mass. A-plus._'

Setting the rifle on the control panel, I collected the empty clip and stuffed it into my inventory before pulling a new one out, fully loaded and ready for insertion. The new 'ammo' counter on my HUD also ticked down from 240 to 232 while my thoughts drifted elsewhere. '_Kind of a shame that they don't have a killhouse of any kind around here. Target practice is all well and good, but live fire exercises like those are pretty much the closest thing you can get to real combat before you have to break out the paintball guns, and those require willing volunteers._'

Snapping back to my current task, I made sure to keep one hand on the bolt while the other pushed the magazine into the weapon, to ensure that the bolt wouldn't release early and crush my thumb between it and the barrel. I'd seen pictures of people who'd fallen victim to it, and they were never pretty sights. Thankfully, I was able to avoid catching a case of Garand Thumb this go-around.

Looking back up at the target's distance, though, gave me a bit of a desire to up the ante. '_Fifteen meters is all well and good, but let's see if I can't do better. How about… twenty five this time?_'

* * *

Ruby and I left the range that day feeling completely content with what we'd accomplished during our stay.

Such as how I'd discovered that passing very close by anything that remotely resembled a stockpile of ammo replenished my own ammo counter entirely. I was already getting ideas on how to exploit that.

It could come later, though. There was something I needed to do first.

"You know, I'm not sure if it was your aim or the gun itself, but that was some top-tier sniping back there." A moment passed before I thought a little more on what I'd just said. "Or- well, considering you kinda made it yourself, there's really no way for that insane accuracy to _not _be all you, so uh, good… good job all around, there."

That something being 'heap praise upon the little prodigy because _holy shit,_ she could blow a man's head off from half a football field away using an untested prototype without a scope.'

Yep. She was that badass, at only the tender age of 14 - and a newly-minted combat school sophomore to boot. I was beginning to see how she would be able to keep up with Beacon students despite skipping ahead two years, when that eventually happened. Hopefully. If I hadn't already futzed the timeline up to the point where that didn't happen, thereby potentially dooming humanity to extinction once Mommy Salami got ahold of the relics and summoned the brother gods to commit suicide by cop, which would incidentally destroy the world. Or something like that.

...good lord, this planet had issues.

Ruby evidently either didn't really know how to handle praise, or still hadn't gotten fully used to me yet, going by her reaction. "Oh, n-nahh, that wasn't… all that special. I can only shoot that well if I'm standing still, without any distractions, and I did miss a few times..."

My gaze went flat. "You got three consecutive headshots, each within half an inch of each other, at a distance of fifty yards, with a weapon that had never been taken outside your lab before today, using nothing but the built-in iron sights on the thing." For anyone less than an eagle-eyed master marksman slash gunsmith back home, that kind of accomplishment would be considered impossible without an unreal amount of luck. "That's not something just any old joe can do."

"Zeiss, come on…" She attempted a smile, but all she ended up accomplishing was giving me the impression that I might have made her uncomfortable. "It's really not that big of a deal. I know real Huntsmen who could make that same shot while under enemy fire and running at a full sprint, easily."

I rolled my eyes, broadcasting 'obviously, duh' through my body language. "Well, of course _they_ can. They've been through at least four whole years of instruction at an academy, gone through rigorous training and practically refined their craft into an art form." I then pointed at her. "You, though, have already managed to make significant progress towards achieving that same feat, using a weapon of your own design, with only a single year at an academy-prep school under your belt. You realize what that looks like, right?"

Her response was to bury her face in her hands and let out defeated whines. Among the various endearing noises of discontent, I could also make out mutterings that sounded like "why me," "don't wanna be special," and "can't I switch schools?"

To this, I could only give a slow facepalm and a sigh. "You're telling me that you still haven't given up on fitting in? Even after what I assume was an entire year of the world trying to convince you that it's an impossible task?"

It only occurred to me that a good number of people probably would've had something to say in regards to my blunt, brutal honesty after I said that. Or to be more accurate, after the noises Ruby was making somehow became even more pitiful. '_Egh. Should try to keep a handle on that tact. Odds are, it'll come in handy later._' Almost certainly in Atlas, in any case. '_Not now, though. I need to address this in a more constructive manner than whatever that was._'

"Well, actually, I suppose there is one way you could pull it off."

That caught her attention, making her look up from her hands. "Really?"

I grimaced, hoping what I was about to say wouldn't hit too hard. "You'd have to give up everything that sets you apart from the crowd."

She was slightly less enthusiastic than she was a few seconds ago. "Like… what?"

"Your creations, for one," I began. "Not only that, but also your skills, too. You'd have to stick with a more boring, by-the-book weapon than most of what I've seen of your sketches, and you'd have to convince everyone that you're about as good, or as bad at everything, as them." She had deflated with each item I'd listed, shrinking down more and more, until I delivered the kicker. "Oh, and you'd probably have to stop wearing that cloak of yours everywhere."

"What?!" She flinched backward, hands zipping across to pull the aforementioned article of clothing over herself. "But, I can't-! W-why, that's-!" She continued to fumble around with her words for a little longer, before defaulting to a single big "_no!_"

Despite myself, I felt a grin creeping up. "See, that right there is exactly why Vale and Vacuo took up arms against Mantle and Mistral all those decades ago. Nobody would want to give all that up just to try and fit some preconceived mold of how a person should be, and anyone who says otherwise is either lying to themselves or had a horrible childhood." For all I remembered, that was quite possibly the single boldest statement to ever leave my mouth.

It seemed like Ruby got the picture, though. "But, if I can't do that, then… how am I supposed to make people think I'm not…" She glanced at her prototype, then at herself in general. "Y'know, weird?"

"That, I'm afraid, is something I can't help you with," I replied. "From what I can tell, the stuff that works for me probably isn't compatible with your type of personality." To illustrate my next point, I snapped into an over-the-top Jojo-esque pose. "I'm the kind of person who owns their weirdness. I openly broadcast it to anyone who's willing to listen, basically saying 'yeah, this is me, deal with it.' You, on the other hand…" I gave her a once-over. "You give me more of a reserved impression. Like that one kinda girl who hardly ever says anything in public, but is the exact opposite when she's with people she trusts." Assessment complete, I shook my head. "Yeah, that approach wouldn't work for you at all. Sorry."

"No, don't be." Her expression told me she was disheartened, but had accepted it. "You're right. We're not the same person, and I can't expect you to have all the answers I need. That's something I have to figure out for myself, right?"

I gave her a grin and a thumbs-up. "Bingo. Seems those smarts of yours aren't reserved exclusively for weapons after all."

If we hadn't known each other for only about three days now, she probably would've swatted me or given me a punch to the shoulder. Alas, we were not yet that close, so she was relegated to puffing out her cheeks, folding her arms and pointedly looking in the other direction with an annoyed grumble.

**[Ruby's support level has increased to rank E.]**

...well, then. Maybe those days weren't actually all that far off.

* * *

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**Game saved.**

* * *

**A/N: To tell the truth, this chapter could probably be refined a little more, but it's 2 AM at the time of writing this note, I'm about to collapse, and the chapter 'deadline' is about here, if it hasn't already passed. I think what's in here as it is is good enough.**

**...Christ, I need a beta. Y'know, there are a few instances when I look at a conversation I've written and go 'how the hell did I go from talking about this topic to this topic?' And then there are other instances where my brain reminds me that I'm a high-functioning autistic, and I wonder 'oh, shit, what does this conversation look like to all the people reading this who have normal brains?'**

**Stuff like that is why reviews with real substance are like a form of heroin for us writers. Whether they're positive or negative is irrelevant, as long as they're constructive and point out what caught the reader's attention and why. If it's positive, it gives us a feeling of validation and tells us 'no, you're not actually terrible at this,' and if it's negative, it calls our attention to just what we did wrong, and therefore kick-starts the process of addressing and fixing the issue.**

**But you didn't come here to listen to me preach and whine about all that. So!**

**The Patch arc is already shaping up to be a fair bit longer than it originally was. By the end of the old chapter 5, Zeiss was already leaving for Vale, but now, we're not even a week into his month-long stay at the island. Continuing off the interactions in the last chapter, we get to see a bit more of the infant Ruby-Yang-Zeiss dynamic during the shopping trip, and then a more traditionally 'anime' conversation between Zeiss and Ruby at the tail end of the chapter. Banter is something I've been exposed to a fair bit, given how a Discord server I'm on is full of writers who love it to death, so sticking a bit more of that in there felt nice.**

**On the topic of characters themselves, I tried to put a bit more of a highlight on Ruby being a weapon nerd in this chapter since she's present in pretty much every scene, even if she's not always front and center, and it involves the acquiring and use of weaponry. As for Yang, I'm going off what I believe the artbook stated about her being more than a little bit of a 'mom' for Ruby, so I've been attempting to squeeze some of that into her interactions while also doing my best to retain as much of that Big Yang Energy as possible. Do let me know if I did an okay job on both of them, please and thank you. **

**Speaking of weapons… Zeiss gets his first gun in this chapter. Now, gun-type weapons aren't really something I've really sat down with and tried to puzzle out, so you can probably expect them and their mechanics to be the source of a lot of future in-universe system updates. Yes, I'm aware that's a bit of a no-no to tell your reader, but I can just hand-wave it by saying that the base system itself was created in a manner not unlike that of Aincrad in Sword Art Online Abridged (fucking Bethesda), like I did in the original fic. Because the idea of an single god running on nothing but pure heaven-caffeine and spite scrambling to complete an entire system of this caliber in about two weeks and then leaving some poor test subject to deal with it is funny to me.**

**Now, with that out of the way… I also reserve the right to refuse a blooper reel if there's no good material for it in the chapter. Sorry!**

**Until next time.**


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